Del Mar Neighborhoods United
Littlle Known History
May 06, 2009
October:
10/539BC Cyrus the Great marched triumphantly into the ancient city of Babylon. After that victory, he set the standard of the benevolent conqueror by issuing the Cyrus Cylinder. In that Declaration, the King promised not to terrorize Babylon nor destroy its institutions and culture. When he conquered Babylon, he did so to cheers from the Jewish Community, who welcomed him as a liberator, he allowed the Jews to return to the promised Land. He showed great forbearance and respect towards the religious beliefs and cultural traditions of other races. Those qualities earned him the respect and homage of all the people over whom he ruled. The Cyrus Cylinder was an artifact of the Persian Empire, consisting of a Declaration inscribed on a clay barrel. Upon his taking of Babylon, Cyrus the Great issued the Declaration, containing an account of his victories and merciful acts, as well as a documentation of his royal lineage. It was discovered in 1879 in Babylon and was kept in the British Museum (See: 10/15/1971).
10/1270(?) Pressure from Egyptian forces increased in the mean time and on the remaining Latin outposts in Syria and Palestine. One by one, the cities and castles of the Crusader states fell to armies of the new and vigorous Mameluke Dynasty. The last major stronghold, Acre (now Akko, Israel), was taken on 5/18/1291 and the Crusading settlers took refuge first on Cyprus and later on Rhodes, both of which were held until the 16th century. Other Latin states established in Greece as a result of the 4th Crusade survived until the mid-15th century. Two centuries of Crusades left little mark on Syria and Palestine, save for the castles, churches and fortifications that the Crusaders left behind. The principal effects of the Crusades were felt in Europe, not in the Middle East. Although the Latin states in the East were short-lived, the experience of the Crusaders established mechanisms that later generations of Europeans would use and improved on when they colonized the Colors territories discovered by the explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries century (See: 11/27/1015, 5/1144(?), 9/1145(?), 3/1146(?), 10/29/1187, 12/1219(?), 6/1228, 5/1244(?) and 9/1270(?)).
10/1814 The formation of 2 Black militia regiments headed by White officer was authorized by the NY legislature and those free Blacks who enlisted received equal pay, while slaves who joined with their masters?’ permission were freed at the war?’s end (almost the same balderdash as promised during the Revolutionary War).
10/1856 China again forced into conflict by Britain and France, known as the infamous Second Opium War aka: The Arrow War, was forced to accept the Treaties of Tientsin. During further ?“negotiations?” in Shanghai, the importation of opium was ?“legalized?” by the British.
10/1862 Confederate President Jefferson Davis asked Virginia to draft 4,500 Blacks to build forts around Richmond
10/1911 Ho Chi Minh departed Vietnam for Europe.
10/1915 Though British officials were not keen on having Blacks serve on the Western Front in WW 1, the extent of the West Indian agitation and devastating losses suffered by the Allies, eventually forced the British government to approve the formation of West Indian contingents and their service overseas. Negotiations relating to the financing of a West Indian contingent and its pay were completed and recruiting began in earnest at the beginning of 10/1915. With a few minor exceptions it was agreed that the West Indians would be recruited on the same terms and conditions as British recruits.
10/1916 Black-American Eugene Jacques Bullard, after joining the French Foreign Legion before WW I, then serving with the French infantry, transferred into the French Air Service, where he became a highly decorated combat pilot, known as the ?“Black Swallow of Death,?” Bullard flew over 20 combat missions. Despite his outstanding record, Bullard was never allowed to fly for the US, even after it entered the war.
10/1922 Palestinians were offered a legislative council by the British, with British+Zionist majority (Palestinians were 89% of population according to British census, itself probably an underestimate) as long as they recognised the Balfour Declaration. Palestinians rejected the offer and announced a boycott of the elections (which thus never happen). The result was that the Palestinians failed to acquire a parliamentary forum in which to operate.
10/1939 WW II began in the East/Asia.
10/1939 Vera Huckel began her career at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautic (NACA was the forerunner to the present day NASA, from 1915-1958), as an engineer with a BS Degree in mathematics. She was one of 3 women engineers at NACA?’s Langley Research Center during that time.
10/1940 Black servicemen in the US armed forces prior to the nation?’s entry into WWII , in December 1941, totaled only 13,200 in the Army and 4000 in the Navy. During this month, the War Department established its basic racial policy by continuing segregation and by establishing a quota for enlisting Blacks based on a percentage of their numbers in the general population.
10/1944 Lt. Colonel Ernest K.H. Eng, U.S. Army, Division Director, Chinese Language Group, Fort Snelling - 2nd Generation Chinese-American, GA. Eng headed a little known, all Chinese-American unit formed at Fort Snelling called the ?“Chinese Language Group.?” It?’s purpose was to train Chinese-Americans for a major assault as part of the invasion of Japan, as well as to drive the remaining Japanese troops out of China. Many members of the language group were on detached service from different units in both theaters of war. Many of the men had combat experience. The group was comprised of intelligence specialists, signal communication specialists, combat engineers etc. All the men in the unit spoke fluent Cantonese or Mandarin and many had technical knowledge of the Chinese terrain and coastal regions as well. A small number of the men also went overseas to China as part of an occupational force as the war in the Pacific ended.
10/1944 During fighting along the Gothic line in Italy, the Black 92nd Infantry Division lost momentum and was forced into a disorderly retreat by the experienced German troops defending this series of fortifications across the peninsula. The division commander, Major General Edward M. Almond and his staff resorted to racist remarks to explain the division?’s initial combat failure. Actually, though, problems such as a poorly organized plan of attack, missing White officers, conflicting orders, untested troops, the confusion of battle were actually to blame and a serious lack of unit cohesion and trust between White officers and Black soldiers. In fact, most blamed Almond?’s racism, claiming that the division commander was so prejudiced that he hoped the episode would discredit the entire Black race. A report issued in 1945 attributed most of the 92nd Division?’s problems to the US Army?’s policy of racial segregation. Unfortunately, the White press focused on certain phrases in the report that seemed to imply that Black soldiers did not perform well in combat. Despite their subsequent combat successes, the division?’s reputation (like that of the 93rd in the Pacific) remained unfairly sullied by this incident.
10/1948 Puerto Rican Nationalists attempt to assassinate the President Truman appointed Governor, native born Jes?ºs T. Pi?±ero. Guard resisted the attack, killing 4 of the 5 attackers.
10/1949 Black chemist Percy L. Julian while working for the Glidden Company created synthetic cortisone at pennies an ounce as compared to $100s per drop of the natural extract.
10/1952 Larry Ziedel, the 1st Jewish hockey play in the NHL, started with the Detroit Red Wings and in his first season, the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup.
10/1960 Communal elections in Rwanda produced a provisional government with Joseph Hahyarimana as President and Gregoire Kayibanda as Prime Minister.
10/1963 Dahomey President Hubert Maga was overthrown by a military coup led by Colonel Christophe Soglo.
10/1964 The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar changed its name to The Republic of Tanzania.
10/1965(?) Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) began a grape boycott, targeting Schenley and the Di Giorgio Corp.
10/1965 The Burundian Hutu military and political elite expressed its feelings of frustrations in an abortive coup. The Mwami (King) fled to Switzerland. Tutsi began a purge of Hutus from the army and bureaucracy.
10/1965 US troops launched the month long Ia Drang campaign, which was the 1st major confrontation between US and North Vietnamese forces.
10/1966 The Black Panther Party was founded by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in Oakland, CA., to promote the idea of militant self-defense for the Black community against police brutality.
10/1972 Dahomey?’s ruling triumvirate was overthrown in a coup led by Mathieu Kerekou.
10/1972 Hanoi, North Vietnam announced that secret negotiations in Paris have led to a 9-point plan to end the War. President Thieu of South Vietnam refused to accept the plan, stalling a final agreement.
10/1972(?) American Indian Movement (AIM) members and other Indian leaders organize ?“The Trail of Broken Treaties,?” whereby 1,000's of Indians drove to Washington, DC to demand that the US government recognize tribal rights to self-determination. They also occupied BIA HQ.
10/1978 Tanzania was invaded by Ugandan forces which occupied some 700 square miles in the NW, they departed only after a period of terror, destruction and pillage.
10/1978 The Republic of the Comoros was renamed the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros, initially the Federal and Islamic .
10/1980 Edward Seaga became Prime Minister of Jamaica.
10/1980 Ever since the Republican Party in the South was reborn by hostility to the civil rights legislation of the 1960's, the national party had increasingly depended on Southern votes while insisting to Northern moderates that it was still the party of Lincoln. One of the sharpest examples and efforts to repair the damage occurred when the endorsements of 2 Black civil rights leaders, Ralph David Abernathy and Hosea Williams were sought out by Ronald Reagan after he opened his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, MS. and set off an outcry when he used the code words ?“states?’ rights?” to appeal to Whites. The trip to Detroit was undertaken to reassure suburban Whites that he, Mr. Reagan, was no racist. However the endorsement was not to seek Black votes, but as his pollster, Richard Wirthlin, said after the election, to soothe Whites who generally supported Republican policies but did not think of themselves as supporting racism (See: 1948 and 12/8/ 2002).
10/1982 Sri Lanka held its first Presidential election which was won by Jayewardene.
10/1984 Kathryn D. Sullivan, PhD, became the 1st American woman to walk in space during the STS-41G, Challenger, flight.
10/1987 Led by its founder and CEO Black-American Reginald F. Lewis, TLC Group, Inc., orchestrated a one-two punch of dazzling financial maneuvering by securing a 90-to-1 return on the sale of McCall Pattern Co., for a $95 million profit and followed up that move with the $985 million acquisition of Beatrice International Foods. It was the 30th largest business transaction in the USA in 1987.
10/1987 Costa Rican President Oscar Arias was awarded the Nobel Prize for his peace plan signed by all Central American Presidents to end regional conflict(s).
10/1988 Burundian President Buyoya appointed a majority of Hutus to the Council of Ministers and named a Hutu, Adrien Sibomana, Prime Minister.
10/1990 The 1st foreign officials were allowed to visit a Tibetan prison.
10/1991 Marta Bohn-Meyer became the first female crewmember to fly in the SR-71 high-speed flight research program at NASA?’s Dryden Flight Research Center. She was the second woman to fly in a triple-sonic aircraft.
10/1992 It was announced that the Nobel prize would go to Rigoberta Mench?º, a Mayan Indian of Guatemala ?“in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples (See: 12/10/1992).?”
10/1992(?) Beverly Cooper, Vice President of the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation, grew up together with Lewis in the Rosemont section of West Baltimore, so close in age that it hardly mattered to either of them that she was his aunt, readied her notepad and concentrated on what Lewis was about to dictate. Lewis reeled off a few organizations he had selected to receive gifts from his fortune upon his death and Cooper wrote down their names: Harvard Law; WNET, a NY public television station and Howard U. Then Lewis began talking about Black children and their education, how they should be exposed to things that instilled pride and proved to them that they were an invaluable part of American society. When Lewis finished, Cooper peered down at her notebook to review what he had dictated: ?“museum and cultural center.?” She had also written down a dollar amount. They didn't discuss what to do next. Cooper assumed they would talk more about it later. That time never came (See: 11/1992, ?/?/1992, 2/1994(?), 4/1994(?), 2/5/2001, 12/11/2003 and 5/19/2004).
10/1993 The war in Burundi broke out after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's 1st democratically elected President, Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu. Despite being in the minority, Tutsis effectively controlled Burundi for all but a few months since independence from Belgium in 1962 (See: 11/2001 and 4/3/2003).
10/1996 Two Chinese taikonauts, their word for ?“astronauts/cosmonauts,?” Wu Tse and Li Tsinlung trained at Russia?’s Cagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City near Moscow until 1998 when they returned to China to train other Chinese taikonauts.
10/1997 Former Ethiopian Prime Minister Tamirat Layne (1991-94) and Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister (1995-10/1997) were sacked, fired, and placed in detention.
10/1999 Unbeknownst to most people the NHL season began with 19 Black hockey players, almost enough to start a Black franchise, a franchise consisted of a minimum of 22 players.
10/1999 Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid was elected to a 5-year term, even though his party had won 10% of the popular vote in 5/1999 in Indonesia's 1st free election since the 1950's. In that vote, Mr. Wahid employed his skills as a political infighter to defeat Megawati Sukarnoputri, whose party had won more than 30% of the vote, far ahead of any other party in the widely scattered field. Mr. Wahid then backed Mrs. Megawati in a vote for Vice President, putting her in a position to succeed him.
10/1999 East Timor was placed under UN administration and Gusmao, Horta and other leaders returned to heroes' welcome.
10/2000 John Thompson was the only Black-American leading a major Silicon Valley firm since DSL provider Covad fired Chief Executive Bob Knowling in October.
10/2000 Gordon J. Davis, 59, a Harvard-trained real estate attorney accepted the position of President of Lincoln Center and will take over in 1/2001, becoming it 1st Black President and the head of the nation's largest non-profit performing arts complex. Davis spent 30 years building a successful public service career, at 32, he was Commissioner of New York City's Planning Commission under former Mayor John Lindsay. Five years later, he served as the city's Parks Commissioner for the Koch administration and was responsible for managing 25,000 acres of city parkland. As the youngest Parks Commissioner in the city's history, Davis created the free concerts series that brought artists like Diana Ross and Simon and Garfunkel to Central Park. The attorney also played a key role in helping to establish the Central Park Conservancy, which had raised $180 million for parkland revitalization and he became a Lincoln Center board member in 1978 (See: 9/27/ 2001).
10/2002 Maria das Neves became Sao Tome and Principe?’s 1st female Prime Minister. She was appointed in a Cabinet reshuffle by President Fradique de Menezes.
10/1/1890 Augustus Walley, a Buffalo Soldier and member of the 9th Cavalry Regiment was awarded the Medal of Honor for rescuing a wounded trooper who was besieged by heavy gunfire from the Apache Nation.
10/1/1947 Control of Haitian Custom Service and governmental revenue was ended by the US.
10/1/1949 The Chinese flag designed by Zeng Liansong was first raised by the revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, when he declared the founding of the People?’s Republic of China.
10/1/1948 The California Supreme Court voided all state statute banning interracial marriages.
10/1/1948 Edward Dudley was named Ambassador to Liberia.
10/1/1949 The Chinese People's Liberation Army finally overcame the Nationalists (KMT) and Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China. The 10th Panchen Lama, then 11 years old, telegramed Mao, asking him to ?“unify the motherland.?” As a consequence the PLA announced its intention to ?“liberate Tibet from foreign imperialists?” (At the time there were no foreigners in Tibet).
10/1/1949 The flag designed by Zeng Liansong was first raised by the revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung in Tiananmen Square in Beijing when he declared the founding of the People?’s Republic of China.
10/1/1951 The 24th Infantry Regiment, last of the all Black-American military units authorized by Congress in 1866, was deactivated in Korea.
101/1954 Nigeria became a federation, within the British Empire.
10/1/1960 The Federal Republic of Nigeria gained its independence from Britain. Its capitol city is Lagos.
101/1961 East & West Cameroon, former German and French colonies, merged and became the Federal Republic of Cameroon and remained in the French Community.
10/1/1963 Nigeria became a Republic within the British Commonwealth.
10/1/1966 The Black Panther party was founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, CA.
10/1/1987 Police in Lhasa (Tibet) opened fire on crowd of 2-3,000 demonstrators, killing at least 9 people and foreign journalists and tourists were expelled from the country.
10/1/2001 For Kenyans, the ultimate act of fanatical aggression was when a terrorist's bomb brought down the USA embassy in Nairobi1998, killing more than 200 people. But the standard was hideously raised when hijacked airplanes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in NYC and the Pentagon in Washington. How could America, many Kenyans wondered, be so completely vulnerable? The indomitable superpower had been laid bare by the ingenuity of a bunch of terrorists. What was not lost on Kenyans, watching horrified as CNN and other international media broadcast the attacks, was the similarity between what happened in the US and what happened in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Some had expressed resentment and frustration with the US in the wake of the Nairobi bombing. ?“When the blasts went off in Nairobi, the Americans were only concerned with evacuating their nationals and not the locals. Sadly, it appeared as if African lives were not a priority for the Americans once their citizens had been accounted for.?” At the time, Kenyans pleaded with America to go to Afghanistan, capture bin Laden and bring him to justice. The US response, a limited missile strike, failed to satisfy most in Kenya and many there believe they had some unfinished business with the Saudi dissident. ?“Now that it has happened to them, the fury is real, not imagined. We hope this time they have the stomach to finish the job.?” Some Kenyans, on the other hand, viewed the actions taken against the US as payback for the superpower?’s actions and policies in the Middle East. ?“It is America's smug, arrogant isolationism that has begotten this disaster.?” Others say the attacks only made them feel closer to the US and less inclined to have any sympathy for Middle Eastern complaints of American misdeeds. ?“Kenyans have never understood why we were the target of the terrorists in 1998,?” said a political researcher at the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research. ?“If the terrorists and their backers ever wanted us to listen to them then they blocked our ears in 1998. We don't want to hear what their point is.?”
10/1/2001 A secret effort to unify groups opposing the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan was authorized by US President Bush. The aid was intended to help the Northern Alliance and also stir resistance to the Taliban among Pashtun tribal groups in the south. Bush's decisions came as the opposition Northern Alliance continued efforts to persuade former King, Mohammad Zahir Shah, 86, to return to Afghanistan and help form a broad-based government. Zahir, ruled Afghanistan for 40 years, was living outside Rome since 1973 when he was deposed. The Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, warned the ex-King to stay out of Afghanistan's affairs. Bush also approved $100 million in new relief aid to Afghan refugees in an attempt to stop resentment in Pakistan as thousands of refugees pour over the border each day (See: 10/15/1914).
10/1/2001(?) Vahid Zohrehvandi, an Iranian-American engineer and part-time employee of American Airlines, was kicked off a flight operated by his own employer in Seattle. He was not allowed to fly home to Dallas until the airline found a pilot who agreed to fly with a ?“Middle Eastern?” man on board. Zohrehvandi?’s lawyers, Kelli Evans and Christy Lopez, belonged to the Washington-based civil rights firm Relman and Associates, whose attorneys were best known for winning large class action settlements in the Denny?’s restaurant and Avis Rent-a-Car discrimination suits. The firm was representing several other men kicked off planes as well. Evans and Lopez, both veterans of the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, compared Zohrehvandi?’s having to wait for a pilot willing to fly him to forcing a customer in a restaurant to wait until a non-discriminatory waitress was willing to serve him. Refusal to provide service to a passenger because of his or her race was illegal, they argued and federal law appeared to be on their side. The US Code stated clearly, ?“An air carrier or foreign air carrier may not subject a person in air transportation to discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, or ancestry.?” (See: 9/17 and 20/2001 and 10/30/2001).
10/1/2001 Terrorist attacked the legislative assembly in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and killed 38 people, a Pakistan-based group said at 1st that its members were responsible, but then it denied responsibility.
10/1/2002 Lewiston, ME. was a sleepy little town of 36,000 people in what was arguably
America's whitest state, Maine. Yet the influx of around 1,600 Somalis, who were predominately Sunni Muslims, in the last 2 years hit Lewiston like a shot of espresso on a cold morning. It was the fear of a Somali takeover of social services that drove Lewiston Mayor Laurier T. Raymond Jr. to draft his now-infamous 10/1/2002, letter urging Somalis to ?“exercise some discipline and reduce the stress on our limited finances and our generosity.?” The mayor's letter was met with sorrow, anger and incredulity by not only the Somali community, but by many Lewiston locals and civil rights activists around the country. Reports of the mayor's painting of a ?“Somali Not Wanted?” sign on the steps of City Hall didn't help (See: 10/14/2002).
10/1/2002 Kekobad Patel, Chairman of the Mozambique Cashew Industry Association (AICAJU), speaking at a Maputo conference on ?“Public-Private Partnerships,?” said that the World Bank ought to support the Mozambican government in its attempts to rescue the cashew processing industry. He pointed out that it was the liberalization of the trade in raw cashews, imposed by the World Bank in 1995, that had led to the collapse of the processing industry. With the export of raw nuts to India encouraged and the local industry stripped of protection, the factories found themselves unable to acquire raw material and one by one they ground to a halt. Now it was time for the World Bank to pay for its disastrous mistakes and provide the funds to rescue the deeply indebted processing companies. Patel pointed out that cashew had once been a corner stone of the Mozambican economy. Four years before Mozambican independence, in 1971, cashew exports (both processes kernels and unprocessed nuts) amounted to $151 million US. Last year, virtually no kernels were exported and the value of exported raw nuts was just $11.5 million US.
10/1/2002 After decades of under-representation among the ranks of ownership, Blacks were finally beginning to get a foothold in the highly lucrative hotel industry. While Blacks spent about $5.6 billion on meetings and conferences alone and about $36 billion on the hotel industry, only a small number of large hotels and inns had Blacks as principal owners. And that's from among the more than 80,000 hotels and inns throughout the US. One of the challenges facing owners was figuring out how to let the Black community know they were out there. The NAACP had been working with the National Association of Black Hotel Owners and Developers (NABHOD) to get the word out. The group included R. Donahue Peebles of Peebles Atlantic Development Corp.; Don Barden, who owned several properties including a Las Vegas casino resort and BET founder Robert Johnson, the principal in a company that owned 9 hotels and was currently negotiating to purchase 2 more. The owners were also working closely with National Coalition of Black Meeting Planners to insure that the big Black conventions, which could number as many of 50,000 participants and average around 300 participants knew that NABHOD was out there and a growing entity. There were a variety of reasons why Blacks found it difficult to penetrate the ownership ranks. The main reason for the low ownership numbers, according to NABHOD had been the large capital costs of ownership for hotels. ?“Construction costs for a new hotel can range from $45,000- $125,000 per room." In addition to increasing the wealth of individuals, NABHOD pointed out that expanded Black ownership will mean more opportunities to Black hospitality vendors and more employment opportunities for Blacks at higher levels. Nationally Black workers held between 30 and 35% of the hotel industry's entry-level jobs, while there were fewer than 60 Black executives in the country's 30,000 full-service hotels.
10/1/2002 South Africa Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad, a close confidante of President Thabo Mbeki and a Asian Muslim with a reported hostility toward Israel, waxed indignant and shrill about British PM Blair?’s dossier that averred, among other claims, that Iraq was scouring 13 African countries in its search for uranium. Such speculation was inevitable, as South Africa was the only country on the continent able of producing processed uranium and it was the 3rd largest producer of uranium in Africa. In the 1980s, under the apartheid regime, South Africa supplied Saddam Hussein with hundreds of thousands of 155mm mortar shells large enough to act as delivery vehicles for chemical agents or poison gas and that in 1988 it also supplied enriched uranium to Saddam. In 1989 under President F.W. De Klerk it abandoned its covert nuclear weapons program. By then it possessed 6 air-deliverable nuclear bombs. In short, South Africa had the uranium, the enrichment and processing capability as well as other forms of nuclear weapons know-how that Saddam wanted. And it had a past record of selling both arms and uranium to him. And why should South Africa and especially Mbeki, care? In a word: NEPAD. The New Partnership for Africa's Development, an economic recovery plan, that was largely Mbeki's child, yet the West and its foreign investment would largely be its parent, if indeed it ever got off the ground. Despite the support of World Bank leaders, NEPAD was receiving little real support from a world more focused on stamping out terrorism rather than African poverty.
10/1/2002 The Mauritius Freeport Authority, established a decade ago, was one of Africa's most successful free-trade zones would again be using Saitex as a platform to the rest of the continent and enabled companies to import goods for export to different markets. Organizations could set up a distribution and marketing base in the Freeport and made use of an integrated logistics platform for their trading activities. Companies operating in the Freeport had the benefit of a wide range of incentives, including corporate tax incentives; dividends not taxable; duty-free import of goods raw materials and equipment; free repatriation of profits; 100% foreign ownership; access to offshore banking facilities and a reduced tariff on port and handling charges. The Mauritius Freeport Logistics Platform comprised specialised infrastructure that embraced warehouses for dry goods, cold-room facilities, business centres, processing centres for carrying out value-added activities and an exhibition centre for the marketing of products in the region. It was situated close to the seaport and airport.
10/1/2003 Zambia had recorded more trade with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries than with the Common Market for Southern and Eastern Africa (COMESA) countries. According to the just released Central Statistical Office publication, The Monthly, Zambia recorded more trade with SADC countries, especially South Africa, than COMESA from Jan. to Aug. 2003 this year. South Africa was the largest single source of Zambia?’s imports, accounting for more than 50% of the total imports during that period. Some of the major items imported from South Africa were machinery, mechanical appliances and vehicles. Other items included mineral fuels, plastics and plastic products, iron and steel, electrical machinery and fertilisers. The pattern for exports was the same as that of imports with Zambia exporting most of her goods to countries within SADC compared to countries within COMESA. Meanwhile, Zambia continued to experience a trade deficit since 1/2003, with a total trade deficit of 70% recorded in the 1st half of the year.
10/1/2003 The American Dream Downpayment Act, passed by voice vote, was an administration-backed initiative aimed at helping families, particularly in minority communities, who were able to meet monthly mortgage payments but didn't have funds for the downpayment and closing costs associated with home loans. Up to 40,000 low-income families would get financial help in making downpayments on their 1st homes under the legislation. The White House said the legislation would reduce a disparity in homeownership, three-fourths of non-minority Americans own their own homes but less than half of Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities were homeowners. The program, was to be administered by the Home Investment Partnerships Program in the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD), provided $200 million a year over the next 2 years in grants to state and local governments. Each low-income family would be given an average of $5,000 to be used toward downpayment and closing costs on a 1st home. The bill must still be considered by the Senate. The bill was H.R. 1276.
10/1/2003 An important new trend in plastic surgery was that more minorities favored retaining their ethnic identity over trying to match Anglo-Saxon ideals, so reported Time Magazine and CNN. ?“People don?’t want to lose their ethnic identity anymore. They don?’t want to look Caucasian,?” noted Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Anthony Griffin in interviews. The movement had only then currently attracted the attention of the national media, though they had only scratched the surface of the many implications and aspects. Minority plastic surgeries had quadrupled in the last 5 years, to more than 1 million procedures in 2002. Caucasians slid 10% to 5.5 million in 2002 alone, according to statistics. Blacks then accounted for 6% of all cosmetic surgeries and were the only population segment to post growth in 2002. Besides not wanting to mimic Caucasian features, many minority patients no longer felt they had to match the skinny figure and tiny buttocks of the traditional supermodel. Dr. Griffin noted one of his most popular procedures of the type was the ?“Brazilian Butt-Lift,?” for those striving for a more realistic J-Lo or Beyonce look. One of the other major factors was that non-Whites were a scarring risk group. However, new procedures meant they no longer had to fear the knife as they did in the past.
10/1/2003 In an effort to highlight the importance of the 2004 presidential election, Black Entertainment Television (BET) founder and CEO Robert Johnson launched a national voter registration drive, fueled by $250,000 in personal funds and $1 million in BET advertising time. The non-partisan voter registration drive, administered jointly by BET and the National Action Network, would feature ads and messages from a number of high-profile figures, according to Kelli Lawson, BET?’s Vice President for Marketing and Marjorie Harris, Executive Director of the network.
10/1/2003 An uproar over critical comments made about the Philadelphia Eagles Black quarterback Donovan McNabb, led to conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh resigning as an ESPN sports analyst. Limbaugh stepped down from the sports network?’s ?“Sunday NFL Countdown,?” 3 days after saying on the show that McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a Black quarterback succeed. McNabb said he didn't mind criticism of his performance, but was upset Limbaugh made his race an issue and said it was too late for an apology. Limbaugh did not directly address media reports that began surfacing that said the talk show host was under investigation in Florida for allegedly illegally obtaining and abusing prescription painkillers. The Daily News, without identifying its source, reported that Limbaugh was being investigated by the Palm Beach County state attorney's office. The newspaper said it had confirmed the allegations, first reported by the National Enquirer.
10/2/1800(?) Nat Turner, the future messianic leader of North America?’s most significant slave revolt, the Southampton Rebellion of 1831, was born on a plantation near Bethlehem in southeast VA. (d: hanged and skinned on 11/11/1831).
10/2/1835 Mexican cavalry troops were defeated by predominately White American settlers near Guadalupe River in the first battle of the Texas revolution against Mexican rule.
10/2/1865 As the Reconstruction period began, North Carolina amended its Constitution, abolishing slavery.
10/2/1869 Mohandas K. Gandhi, future political and spiritual leader of India, then composed of both Indian and Pakistan, and whose philosophy of nonviolence influenced movements around the world, was born in Porbandar, India (d: 1/30/1948).
10/2/1898 Otis J. Ren?©, who with his younger brother Leon, he will move to Los Angeles, CA, and establish Exclusive and Excelsior Records in the 1930's which by the mid-1940's will make the brothers leading independent record producers whose artists will include Nat King Cole, Herb Jeffries, and Johnny Otis, was born in New Orleans, LA.
10/2/1935 Robert H. Lawrence, Jr., who will be named the 1st Black US astronaut but will die in an F-104 crash before going into space, was born in Chicago, IL.(d: 12/8/1967 at age 32).
10/2/1944 The first working, production-ready model of a mechanical cotton picker was demonstrated on a farmer near Clarksdate, Miss.
10/2/1944 Approximately 250,000 people, predominately Jews, were killed when German Nazi troops crushed the 2-month-old Warsaw Uprising.
10/2/1958 The Republic of Guinea under Sekou Toure declared its independence from France, refusing to wait until 1960 and refusing to join the French Union.
10/2/1967 Thurgood Marshall became the 1st Black appointed to the nation?’s highest court when he was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court.
10/2/1979 Charlie Smith, reportedly the last living Black-American slave, died at the reputed age of 137 (b: 1842(?)).
10/2/1986 The US Senate overrode President Ronald Reagan's veto of legislation imposing economic sanctions against South Africa and the override was seen as the culmination of efforts by Trans-Africa's Randall Robinson, Rep. Mickey Leland (D-TX) and others begun almost 2 years earlier with Robinson's arrest before the South African Embassy in Washington, DC.
10/2/1987 Burundian Major Buyoya was sworn in as President after overthrowing President Bagaza who was in Canada attending a Francophone Summit.
10/2/1989 The comic strip ?“Jump Start?” that premiered in 40 newspapers in the US was the creation of 26-year-old Robb Armstrong, the youngest Black-American to have a syndicated comic strip, he followed in the footsteps of Morrie Turner, the creator of Wee Pals, the 1st Black-American syndicated comic strip.
10/2/1997 The beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year: 5758.
10/2/2000 Thirty-four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa were designated as eligible for the trade benefits of the African Growth & Opportunities Act (AGOA) when US President Clinton issued a proclamation to that effect. The US Government intended that the largest possible number of Sub-Saharan African countries were able to take advantage of AGOA.
10/2/2001 The Colorado Muslim Society mosque was visited by Colorado Governor Bill Owens, who emphasized that the war against terrorism was not a war against Muslims. Posing beside him were 3 smiling women, Halima Kasson, Reema Wahdan and Sara Ruth Jadallah, in long robes and traditional scarves or ?“hijabs.?”
10//2/2001 A car bomb killed 40 people outside the State Legislature in India?’s section of Kashmir for which Pakistan-based militants claimed responsibility, but later denied their involvement.
10/2/2002 Tens of thousands of angry Ivory Coast government loyalists raced down the skyscraper-lined highways of Abidjan waving sticks and shouting their rage at rebels advancing steadily south. Rebels were reported to be in control of another northern city, Seguela, 250 miles away. The well-armed, well-disciplined insurgents had spread north and west, taking towns including Odienne and now Seguela. Their goal was Abidjan, the country's commercial capitol and the key to holding a country that remained one of the region's economic powerhouses. Rebels said only a formidable French military presence at Yamoussoukro was blocking their drive south to Abidjan (See: 9/19/2002).
10/2/2002 The Chicago City Council following California's lead was considering asking insurance companies to disclose their past ties to slavery, but some in the industry questioned what the proposal would accomplish. Alderman Dorothy Tillman, who proposed the measure, said the disclosures could help win reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans in the US. The ordinance would require insurance companies seeking city contracts to disclose any information about policies written to provide financial protection for US slave owners in the 19th century and earlier. It was approved by 2 City Council committees on 9/12/2002.
10/2/2002 A meeting, entitled ?“African and African Descendants' World Conference Against Racism,?” hosted by the government of Barbados with organizers including the Congress Against Racism Barbados and the US-based Congress of People of African Descent voted to exclude non-Blacks from the meeting, saying it was too traumatic to discuss slavery in front of them. The dozen or so Whites and a couple of Asians, mainly interpreters and members of non-governmental groups, left without protest. A major issue at the meeting was a plan by Black activists from the Caribbean and North America to sue France for making Haiti pay millions of dollars for recognition of its independence nearly 2 centuries ago.
10/2/2003 Former Senegalese President Abdou Diouf was in Ivory Coast for crisis talks with President Laurent Gbagbo on the country's crumbling peace process. Diouf may also meet with rebel Chief Guillaume Soro, who was the Communications Minister in a unity government set up in 1/2003 to end a civil war that started a year ago, Diouf's entourage said. The former President was on a peace mission as head of the International Organisation of Francophone Nations (OIF). Ivorian rebels pulled out of the unity government last week, accusing Gbagbo of deliberately stalling the peace process and of flouting the terms of the 1/03 pact, signed in the French town of Marcoussis. Diouf was also due to meet with members of the international committee tasked with helping to implement the Marcoussis accord and with several key Ivorian political players. The organisation of French-speaking nations led by Diouf sat on the follow-up committee, which was led by Benin?’s Albert Tevoedjre, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan?’s Special Representative for Ivory Coast.
10/2/2003 Black Americans were nearly 3 times as likely as Whites to be charged markups on General Motors Acceptance Corp (GMAC) loans according to an analysis reported in the Washington Post. The report, included in a lawsuit filed against the nation?’s 2nd-largest automobile loan maker, said Black borrowers paid an average of $1,229 in extra interest over the life of their GMAC loans, compared with the average of $867 paid by Whites. Vanderbilt U Business Professor Mark Cohen, who conducted the survey of more than 1.5 million GMAC loans, said he found Black postal workers paid an average of $811 more than White postal workers to get car loans, while Black teachers paid an average of $595 more than White teachers. Even Black GM employees paid more than their White counterparts. Cohen said the disparate impact against Blacks could not be explained by creditworthiness or other legitimate business factors. The Post reported GMAC officials declined comment, saying the company was reviewing the report.
10/2/2003 Turning the tables on the nation's leading civil rights organization, 3 Republican Senate hopefuls, Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, who was born in India; Antonio Davis-Fairman, the only Black Republican and former state Rep. Jonathan Wright, accused the NAACP of unfairly excluding from a scheduled debate the only 2 GOP minority candidates in the race. Dr. Kathuria and Davis-Fairman were vying to succeed Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), were nixed from the lineup of the 10/4/03 debate. That was because they placed last in a public opinion poll the NAACP's Illinois State Conference commissioned wanted to winnow down the crowd. The civil rights organization decided to include only the top 6 candidates from each party in the 2-hour debate. But Dr. Kathuria and state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin) scoffed at that reasoning, arguing that the poll really showed the race was wide open. Davis-Fairman did not attend a news conference with Rauschenberger and Kathuria but issued a statement saying ?“the NAACP snub is part of the problem. It's the white-washing of our great party.?” Rauschenberger was more measured in his criticism, saying ?“I think the NAACP does good work and intends to do good work. I just think they're wrong on this.?” ?“If any organization should be committed to including everybody in this debate, particularly the emerging interests of minorities in the Republican Party, it ought to be the NAACP,?” he said.
10/2/2003 It had gotten to the point that Chicago needed to post signs warning motorists of the gang terrorists that were in control in some of the city?’s neighborhoods. The threat was considerably worse for young Black males. Besides being worried that they could be shot because they were misidentified as a gang member, Black males also had to be leery of neighborhoods occupied by Hispanic gangs. On 9/27/03 night, 3 young Black males, none of them gang members, got lost while looking for a house party in the 116th block of Lafayette on the South Side. They ended up on 115th, near Michigan and Kensington, a predominantly Hispanic section of Calumet Heights. Killed was 19-year old Christian Simpson. His brother Ricky Simpson, 23, and friend Marcus Chapman, 19, were seriously injured. There was a major problem between Mexicans and Blacks and people were turning a blind eye. On 8/18/03, there was another shooting, that one on the North Side, that had similar characteristics. Almon Tesfal, a 19-year-old Eritrean, was gunned down while sitting in a car at 702 N. Ada with 2 of his friends, also Eritreans. According to police, 2 Hispanics drove by and started shooting at the car. The 2 other victims sustained gunshot wounds. All 3 had graduated from Gordon Tech HS together. Tesfal apparently went to the area to help his friends prepare for their upcoming trip Downstate to attend the U of Illinois. No one had been arrested in connection with Tesfal's murder. ?“We are still beating the bushes,?” Pat Camden, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, said. ?“We know our offenders are male Hispanics.?” ?“I don't think these attacks on young black men have as much to do with gang warfare as they do with the polarization of Black and Hispanic communities. This didn't have to happen,?” Glenda Simpson said about her son's death. If nobody faced up to this problem, it will happen again.
10/3/1790 John Ross, future Cherokee Indian leader, was born (d: 8/1/1866).
10/3/1856 T. Thomas Fortune, future Black journalist and founder of the Afro-American League, was born in Mariana, FL.
10/3/1922 Rebecca L. Felton, D-GA., became the 1st woman to be seated in the US Senate. She was appointed to serve out the remaining term of Senator Thomas E. Watson.
10/3/1935 Ethiopia was invaded by Italy despite Emperor Haile Selassie's pleas to the League of Nations.
10/3/1949 Jesse Blanton, Sr., purchased radio station WERB in Atlanta, GA., and it became the 1st Black-0wned station.
10/3/1954 Al Sharpton, future Black-American civil rights activist, candidate for public office and poverty pimp, was born in Brooklyn, NY.
10/3/1956 Nat ?“King?” Cole was the 1st Black-American host of a TV show, but it failed for lack of a sponsor(s).
10/3/1962 Laura Ray Young, the 1st Black female head of a Post Office was appointed by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, died.
10/3/1968 The Los Angeles Board of Education voted to return Sal Castro to the classroom (See: 9/10/1968 and 9/26/1968).
10/3/1974 Frank Robinson was named the Manager of the Cleveland Indians, the 1st Black-American to manage a Major League Baseball.
10/3/1989 Art Shell became the 1st Black-American coach of a National Football League team.
10/3/1994 Black-American Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy announced his resignation because of questions about gifts he had received from various Agni-business entities. He was charged with corruption on 8/27/1997.
10/3/1994 Brazilian Fernando Henrique Cardozo was elected President and took office on 1/1/1995.
10/3/1998 A financial rescue plan for Brazil was created by G-7 Ministers.
10/3/2000 A 4,300-year-old tomb (?© 2,300BC) excavated this summer at the site of an ancient city in Syria had the discovering archaeologists excited but deeply puzzled. The arrangement of the bodies, accompanied by gold, bronze and ceramic grave goods, seems to defy ready explanation. The find was remarkable as the oldest unplundered elite tomb to be found in Syria. The tomb promised to provide new insights into a little-known urban culture that prospered at the same time Sargon of Akkad was creating the world's 1st empire, based in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and the Pharaohs were in the later stages of their pyramid building boom in Egypt.
10/3/2001 The wireless phone market in Africa and the Middle East was booming, according to a new report. The study, from Baskerville, part of the Informa Group, said that there were 140 million wireless subscribers in Africa and the Middle East and sales continued to take off. Tawanda Chihota, a co-author of the report, said one of the reasons for the African market's boom was that wireless handsets were subsidized by the networks. The market was so buoyant in the 2 regions, the report concluded, that Africa was expected to connect its 100 millionth user by 2006 and the Middle East will see its 100 millionth user in 2007. The report, ?“Africa and the Middle East: Mobile, Fixed Telecoms and Internet Opportunities,?” took in research from 44 African and 14 Middle Eastern countries. It can be obtained from Baskerville for 995 British pounds ($1,450).
10/3/2001 Hawala, the Arabic word for trust, was ancient and far- reaching network of informal banking. Although it was illegal in most countries, including Pakistan, authorities estimated that billions of dollars flowed unseen by regulators through the hawala system worldwide. A senior government official in Pakistan said law enforcement authorities were certain that Osama bin Laden's network used hawala to transfer money to agents outside Afghanistan, along with conventional means. But the nature of hawala made tracking particular exchanges almost impossible. The system was in place long before Western banking. The ancient Chinese used a similar method called ?“flying money,?” or fei qian. Arab traders used it as a means of avoiding robbery along the Silk Road. Millions of Pakistanis, Indians, Filipinos and other people from southern Asia working in foreign countries use the system to send money home to relatives. The system is used for far larger sums, often by drug traffickers, corrupt politicians and black market traders. Authorities found evidence that hawala had been used for payments by smuggling rings and militant groups in the disputed territory of Kashmir and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
10/3/2002 Nearly $18 million worth of reduced-price HIV drugs intended for the Congo Republic, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Togo and Guinea-Bissau were intercepted by profiteers and shipped back to Europe to be sold at marked-up prices in Germany, the Netherlands, Britain and Switzerland by European wholesalers, according to a current investigation. As a result of the scheme, nearly a quarter of the supply of the antiretroviral drug Combivir that was intended for African patients had not reached them in the last year, said the drug's manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline. After persistent agitation by AIDS activists to improve access to treatment in developing countries, Glaxo had discounted Combivir, which costed between $4 and $6 a pill in Western Europe, to $0.80 a pill in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 28.5 million people were infected with HIV, the virus that caused AIDS.
10/3/2002 Al Sharpton,47, was stepping down as President of the National Action Network, a Harlem-based group he founded in 1991, to focus on a bid for the presidency, his spokeswoman said. Sharpton announced last year he would run for the Democratic presidential nomination, had put himself at the center of many civil-rights actions. Sharpton was forced in 1998 to pay Pagones $65,000 in damages after a jury found Sharpton had lied when he accused Pagones of raping and kidnapping Brawley.
10/3/2002 Iran's Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani signed an accord with Kuwait aimed at establishing military cooperation between the Islamic Republic and a pro-Western Arab state on the Persian Gulf for the 1st time since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. The Minister and his Kuwaiti counterpart signed the memorandum of understanding in Tehran, Iran's state television said. Shamkhani later said the accord called for the exchange of military experts, training cooperation and other exchanges on security matters.
10/3/2002 Rich countries should support developing countries' efforts to reduce poverty and build more prosperous and stable societies, argued African Finance Ministers during the 9/25-29/2002 annual meetings of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF). They could do that by removing obstacles that hindered economic growth and development, the African Ministers said. The leaders found that 4 major barriers to Africa's economic growth were in the areas of agricultural subsidies, labeling, anti-dumping laws and escalating tariffs. Agricultural subsidies, for example, average $1 billion a day, roughly 6 times the annual amount spent on world aid. Seventy-five percent of sub-Saharan Africa, which represented the bulk of the world's poorest nations, lived on less than $2 per day. By all standards, the African Ministers pointed out, those subsidies were disproportionately huge.
10/3/2003 Stephen Moore, 30, a US soldier on home leave from his station in South Korea won a lottery prize worth $150 million. Moore was visiting his wife and family in Georgia when he learned of the lottery win. A 10-year Army veteran, he now hoped to receive a discharge from the military. Moore said that he still planned to return to South Korea to bid farewell to his comrades in arms before leaving the military.
10/3/2003 Ronald Venetiaan Suriname?’s President swore in Samuel Pawironadi, 47, as the country?”s Social Affairs Minister. Pawironadi, was a career civil servant, replaced Paul Somohardjo who resigned in 8/03 following a sex scandal. Pawironadi, a father of 3, had served as Managing Director of the Ministry of Social Affairs since 8/2000.
10/3/2003 For the 2nd time in 2 days, Gov. Sila Calderon withdrew the nomination of the island's Secretary of State, Ferdinand Mercado, to become the next Chief Justice of Puerto Rico's Supreme Court. Calderon 1st withdrew Mercado?’s nomination on 10/2/03 when it became clear that he would not obtain a simple majority of Senate votes to confirm him. She instead put his name forward to become an associate justice. A caucus of governing party senators unanimously supported the new nomination. But Calderon backtracked when opposition leaders challenged the constitutionality of the decision. They said the 6 Associate Justice seats were filled, thus preventing her from nominating Mercado. She then re-nominated Mercado for the Chief Justice post, although 6 of 20 Senators from the governing Popular Democratic Party wrote Calderon saying they would oppose that nomination.
10/3/2003 For the 2nd time in 2 days, Gov. Sila Calderon withdrew the nomination of the island's Secretary of State, Ferdinand Mercado, to become the next Chief Justice of Puerto Rico's Supreme Court. Calderon 1st withdrew Mercado?’s nomination on 10/2/03 when it became clear that he would not obtain a simple majority of Senate votes to confirm him. She instead put his name forward to become an associate justice. A caucus of governing party senators unanimously supported the new nomination. But Calderon backtracked when opposition leaders challenged the constitutionality of the decision. They said the 6 Associate Justice seats were filled, thus preventing her from nominating Mercado. She then re-nominated Mercado for the Chief Justice post, although 6 of 20 Senators from the governing Popular Democratic Party wrote Calderon saying they would oppose that nomination.
10/3/2003 Ronald Venetiaan Suriname?’s President swore in Samuel Pawironadi, 47, as the country?”s Social Affairs Minister. Pawironadi, was a career civil servant, replaced Paul Somohardjo who resigned in 8/03 following a sex scandal. Pawironadi, a father of 3, had served as Managing Director of the Ministry of Social Affairs since 8/2000.
10/4/1928 James Foreman, future Black-American Executive Secretary of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the Civil Rights Movement and a spokesperson for reparations for the past enslavement of Americans, was born in Chicago, IL.
10/4/1935 Black-Americans rallied to protest Italy?’s invasion of Ethiopia.
10/4/1943 H. Rap Brown, future Black-American Chair of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the Civil Rights Movement, allied with the Black Panther Party and active advocate for Blacks rights, was born in Baton Rouge, LA.
10/4/1966 The Kingdom of Lesotho, formerly a British protectorate which needed and sought protection from the Boers and known as Basutoland, gained its independence from Britain. Its capitol city is Maseru.
10/4/1976 US President Gerald Ford accepted the resignation of Earl Butz, who was forced to resign as Secretary of Agriculture, in the wake of a controversy over a joke he?’d made about Black-Americans.
10/4/1987 Black-American Ambassador Mercer Cook, a former Professor of French at Howard University and the Ambassador to Niger (1961-64), to Senegal (1964) and US Ambassador (1965) under US Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, died in Washington, DC (b: 3/30/1903, DC).
10/4/1991 The Harold Washington Library was dedicated in Chicago in memory of the City?’s popular twice elected 1st Black-American Mayor (4/12/1983 and 4/7/1987) who died in Office (d: 11/25/1987).
10/4/1994 South African President Nelson Mandela was welcomed to the White House by US President Bill Clinton.
10/4/2000 Alabama was the very last state with a clause in its Constitution that forbade the marriage of Black and White and the issue was to appear on in its 11/7/2000 election as a ballot proposal for removal with 64% in flavor and 19% against (See 1901). The US Supreme Court ruled such bans illegal almost 30 years before.
10/4/2001 Seven and a half years after soldiers and militiamen lobbed grenades into Ntarama's Roman Catholic church, killing an estimated 5,000 people in a few hours, survivors and residents of the 1994 massacre joined Rwandans throughout the country to choose 260,000 local judges in an attempt to cut through the backlog of pending genocide trials through application of ``gacaca,'' or traditional justice. Since 1994, about 6,000 of the 110,000 genocide suspects had been tried in regular courts, however, at this rate, it would take about 200 years before all suspects have their day in court. Regular courts had so far convicted and executed 22 people. The 70,000 suspects who admitted their guilt will be tried first for reduced punishment ranging from community service to between 1 1/2 to 25 years in jail, while those who profess innocence but are found guilty face either life imprisonment or the death penalty.
10/4/2001 Late last month, the Civil Rights Division of the Florida Attorney General's office in Fort Lauderdale officially shut down Susan's Travel and General Service owned by Susan M. Sanchez and her mother, Susana A. Sanchez, a Miami team who promised Black-Americans they would help them recover a nonexistent $40,000 income tax credit for slavery reparations. In the consent agreement to close their tax preparation the 2 women also agreed to pay a $10,000 fine. In exchange, the Florida AG's office dropped its civil case against them. The women could still face criminal charges. The basis for such claims dates to Reconstruction, when the US Congress voted to provide former slaves with 40 acres and a mule as compensation for the injustice of slavery. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill. There were legitimate legal efforts being discussed to win reparations for Black-Americans. Earlier in 2001, a team of lawyers and Black activists led by Professor Charles Ogletree Jr. of Harvard Law School and Randall Robinson of TransAfrica Forum, an African-American policy group, announced plans to file a lawsuit seeking reparations for slavery. The group, the Reparations Coordinating Committee, had many vexing issues to work out, including who the plaintiffs and defendants would be. It hoped to file the suit sometime in 2002.
10/4/2001 Banks were increasingly discriminating against potential home buyers on the basis of their race, ethnicity and income, according to a new report from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The study analyzed mortgage data from 60 metropolitan areas, including San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. Although denying mortgages to minorities was nothing new, the report was alarming because it found ?“the (rejection) rates are increasing, at every single economic level,?” said Lez Trujillo, ACORN housing regional supervisor. ?“Major banks do not lend as readily to people of color and Latino communities as to white communities,?” said San Francisco Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval. Nationally, upper-income Black-Americans were turned down for a mortgage more than 3 times as often as upper-income Whites. Upper- income Blacks were also turned down more often than Whites with half their income. The report also found that minorities were disproportionately shunted into more-expensive ?“sub-prime loans.?”
10/4/2001 Southern Asia and Africa suffer most from the staff shortage of 15 million educators required worldwide. In many parts of the world, low pay, poor working conditions, school violence and lack of prestige are to blame, the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said. Africa's educational system was being ravaged by AIDS, the group said. In 1998 in Zambia, for example, more than 100 teachers died of AIDS every month. About 2/3s of the world's illiterate are women, the group said. In Afghanistan, 78% of women cannot read or write and girls had no right to education. Wealthy countries, too, were affected by the teacher shortage. The US, for example, will need an extra 2 million teachers in the next decade to keep up, the statement said. At a UNESCO conference in Senegal last year, more than 180 governments pledged to achieve universal basic education by 2015. Unless 15 million more teachers are hired in the next decade, many countries will fall short of that goal, the statement said.
10/4/2002 It's taken nearly 32 months to roll out, but Ronald L. Jones, Founder and Chairman and Mark A. Bush, co-Founder and Vice President of Business Development of Santa Monica, CA.-based digital media company, SongPro Inc., the 1st and only Black majority-owned digital audio device manufacturer, was ready to launch SongPro Player, a plug-in module that attached to any Nintendo GameBoy and played MP3, WMA (Windows Media Audio) and SongPro Audio files, turning the Nintendo GameBoy into an affordable digital music and multimedia player. The SongPro Player, priced at $99, was due to hit such retail outlets as Toys 'R' Us, Best Buy and Walmart.com in 11/2002. According to Jones and Bush the groundbreaking SongPro Player was targeted to a pure 11-17 demographic, particularly Nintendo GameBoy users. ?“There are 125 million plus users of the Nintendo GameBoy Color and GameBoy Advance and we just want to get a small slice of that market,?” said Bush. SongPro was also going launch the SongPro Network, a group of affiliate sites that would market and distribute content for SongPro devices.
10/4/2003 Thousands of people gathered in Foley Square for a procession to the African Burial Ground on Duane Street, where more than 300 hand-carved coffins were lowered into their final resting places in the lower Manhattan burial ground where they were discovered in 1991. The ceremony capped a long struggle over the burial ground, where the remains of an estimated 20,000 Africans were buried over a 5-acre stretch near City Hall. Descendants of people buried there were unsuccessful in their attempts to stop the construction of a federal tower. Nearly $20 million in federal funds was spent on the project in the 1990s and the reburial was delayed several times. Many said they were pleased to see the slaves treated with the dignity they were not given in life, but others remembered the hard feelings created by the burial ground controversy.
10/4/2003 Arie Parks Taylor, 76, the 1st Black woman elected to the Colorado General Assembly and a longtime prominent Denver political figure died of complications from a surgical procedure. Speakers at the funeral included US Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Denver), Mark Udall, of Boulder; former Broncos player Odell Barry; former Denver 1st Lady Wilma Webb, who served in the legislature with Taylor and newly elected Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. After studying at Miami U in Oxford, Ohio and Case Western Reserve U in Cleveland, Taylor became a sergeant in the Air Force and married a serviceman. She didn?’t remarry after they divorced. She grew up in Ohio and moved to Denver with her husband in 1958. Taylor, represented House District 7 in northeast Denver for 6 terms between 11/1972 and 1/1984, earning a reputation as an outspoken force for Blacks, women, the poor, the elderly and other disadvantaged communities. After leaving the legislature, Taylor worked for Coors Brewing Co.?’s Governmental Affairs Division. Coors official Moses Brewer said the company set up a scholarship in her name to be awarded annually to a Black student from the metro area. In and out of office, Taylor fought for issues such as fair housing, equal lending laws for women and domestic violence programs. Among other activities, she served on the health, welfare, environment and institutions committees in the legislature. She won the Harriet Tubman Achievement Award in 1989 for extraordinary efforts against racial violence. Ten years later, the Arie P. Taylor Municipal Center, northeast Denver?’s Department of Motor Vehicles branch, was dedicated. Taylor 1st won national attention at the 1968 Democratic Convention when the Chicago Sun-Times described her as ?“a large, fierce, Black woman?” for her fight against seating all-White Southern delegations. In 1989, Taylor took a tough stance and came out against building a new Denver airport even though many Black politicians supported it. She served as Denver?’s Clerk and Recorder during former Mayor Wellington Webb?’s 1st term and had remained an active force behind the scenes of Denver politics.
10/5(?)/1824 Guadalupe Victoria took office as Mexico's 1st President, a liberal federalist and Vice President General Nicol?¡s Bravo, a conservative centralist, whose main distinction as President was that of being the only Chief Executive in the first 50 years of Mexico's history to serve out his full term, but he was hampered by severe financial problems, his expenses averaged 18 million pesos annually but he was only collecting half that amount in revenues. Guadalupe Victoria was born in 1786 in Tamazula, Durango and christened Manuel Felix Fern?¡ndez, he took the name Guadalupe Victoria for its symbolic value -- "Victoria" for "victory" and "Guadalupe" from the name of Mexico's patron saint (See: 5/22/1822 and 1/23/1823).
10/5/1867 Monroe Baker, a well-to-do African American businessman, was named Mayor of St. Martin, LA. and was probably the 1st Black-American to serve as Mayor of a town.
10/5/1869 Twenty-seven (27) Black Republicans and 150 Whites members met when the 1st Reconstruction legislature of Virginia convened.
10/5/1929 Autherine Lucy, the future 1st Black-American to enter the University of Alabama, was born in Shiloh, AL.
10/5/1932 Perle Yvonne Watson aka: Yvonne Braithwaite Burke, future staff attorney on the McCone Commission investigating the causes of the Watts riots (8/11-17/1965), 1st Black-American US Representative from CA.(1/3/1973-1/3/79), the 1st Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and LA County Supervisor (12/7/1992-12/6/2000), was born in Los Angeles, CA..
10/5/1941 Former Justice Louis Brandeis, the 1st Jewish member of the Supreme Court, died at age 84 (b: 11/13/1856, Louisville, KY).
10/5/1942 Contralto opera star Marion Anderson was invited by the Daughters of the American Revolution to sing in Constitution Hall, 3 years after they refused her the use of the Hall.
10/5/1989 Dalai Lama was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
10/5/1999 Twelve current and former Black employees charged Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., the restaurant chain, with discriminating against Black employees because of their race. At the news conference, the NAACP, its President and CEO, Kweisi Mfume, along with several plaintiffs, the firm of Gordon, Silberman, Wiggins & Childs and attorney Grant Morris announced the lawsuit. Plaintiffs described widespread discrimination against Blacks in hiring, firing, pay, promotions and terms and conditions of employment in several Cracker Barrel restaurants across the Southeast. These legal proceedings could affect Blacks nationwide who have and had experienced a racially hostile work environment while employed at a Cracker Barrel restaurant (See: 7/30/1999 and 12/13/2001).
10/5/2001(?) In early October, the National Alliance, a Hillsboro, WV-based hate group closely monitored by authorities was distributing fliers in a St. Petersburg neighborhood, peppering different streets with propaganda blaming the 9/11 attacks on America's ?“alliance with Israel?” and stating ?“ the Jewish cause is not the American cause.?” A second page exhorted people to ?“take back our country?” from ?“corrupt politicians and minority special-interest groups?” to secure the future for white children. Residents said they were upset that the group seemed to be targeting their homes. Officials with the Anti-Defamation League in Miami said they had somewhat increased their membership in the Tampa Bay area in the last 2 years. William Pierce, 68, a Rice University graduate and former physics professor at Oregon State University, who wrote the notorious Turner Diaries, thought to be the inspiration for such figures as Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Robert Jay Mathews, leader of the Order, a violent 1980s white supremacist group founded the National Alliance in 1974 (See: 12/1/2001).
10/5/2002 Albert C. Yates, 61, President of Colorado State University turned a 2nd-tier ag school into an influential research university, much as he transformed himself from a high school underachiever to college president. Yates took over a university in 1990 splintered by a decade of instability and uncertainty with 6 presidents in 10 years. From that, he led the university to record enrollment and fundraising. CSU documented breakthroughs in everything from cloning, hurricane forecasting and a new tuberculosis vaccine to canola engine oil and laser technology. The university's veterinary medicine and atmospheric sciences programs were world- renowned. But Yates was preparing to retire on 6/30/2002 after 12 years, said it's time to spend more time with his family, his wife, Ann, and daughters Aerin, 14, and Sadie, 7, after 35 years in higher education, starting as an assistant professor at Indiana University. He also had 2 grown children from a previous marriage. Yates, the 1st Black President at CSU and the only one in the state, made $240,000 a year in his dual role as President of CSU and Chancellor of the 2-college CSU System that included the University of Southern Colorado (See: 9/17/2001).
10/5/2003 About a 6th of the world?’s population, nearly 1 billion people, lived in slums and that number could double by 2020 if developed nations didn?’t reverse course and start giving the issue serious attention, according to a UN report by the UN Human Settlements Program. The report was the first ever to assess slums and examine how widespread they were. Its main concern was the developing nations in Asia and Africa because the migration from rural areas to cities in Europe and the Americas had largely played out. The report?’s main finding were stark: Almost half the world?’s urban population lived in slums. Asia had the largest number of slum dwellers overall, with 554 million, while sub-Saharan Africa had the largest percentage of its urban population living in slums, about 71%. The report described slums as poor areas that lacked basic services or access to clean water, where housing was poorly built and overcrowded. Developed nations were not immune: According to the report, 54 million people who lived in cities in richer nations lived in slum-like conditions. The report noted, however, a few positive sides to slums. They were a stopping-off point for immigrants who couldn?’t afford better housing when they 1st arrived in a city; they were a cultural mix that often sparked new artistic movements and their crowded environment could sometimes lead to ?“levels of solidarity unknown in the suburbs of the rich.?”
10/5/2003 Blacks, golfers and women were the target of the SC Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT) when it invested big bucks in magazine ads to entice tourists to the state in 2004. Agency officials were betting an ongoing boycott by the state chapter of the NAACP would not sabotage the effectiveness of what may be the largest effort to court Black consumers in state history. PRT expected to outspend all other states combined to purchase advertising space in national Black magazines like Ebony, American Legacy and Pathfinders. Since 2000, the NAACP has asked tourists to boycott the state to protest the confederate flag on Statehouse grounds. NAACP State Conference President James Gallman agreed people who were not reminded daily of the flag may have forgotten the issue. Gallman said his organization would continue to ask NAACP units in other states to remind Blacks ?“there are other places they can go and not be subjected to the indignity of a flag flying in your face that says, ?‘We are superior to you.?’?” A PRT study conducted in the 1990s showed 2 million Blacks visit SC each year, infusing more than $250 million into the economy. They contributed more than $21 million in state and local taxes, which helped support at least 5,000 jobs. According to the study, SC received about 5% of the national Black travel market in 1997. More recent statistics weren't available, Edmonds said. At least 20% of tourists who visit York County were Black, estimated Margaret Young, sales director of the local convention and visitors bureau. The number of Black family reunions in York County had increased in each of the past 3 years, Young said. A 1999 NAACP study pinpointed SC as the most frequently chosen location for Black family reunions, Gallman said. In fact, Pathfinders, a national Black travel magazine, was due to hold its annual conference on Black family reunions in 3/2004 on Hilton Head Island. Young said the reunions, which can attract dozens of out-of-town visitors, generated from $200,000 to $300,000 in economic activity for York County annually.
10/5/2003 The prospect of the nations 1st Asian-Indian-American governor ought to be good news for ethnic diversity and empowerment in public life. But Bobby Jindal, 32, of Baton Rouge, LA., wasn't what you'd call a race man. Far from it. Jindal, who led the field in today?’s open primary with 33% of the vote, campaigned essentially as a White man who happened to have been Brown, downplaying his own roots and seemingly going out of his way to not court the Black vote. Jindal was a Republican, an arch-conservative Republican in the Deep South mold. He opposed abortion without exception, railed against the ?“radical gun control lobby,?” and pledged not to raise taxes. A convert to Catholicism with a pronounced evangelical edge. He and his wife, Supriya, had a ?“covenant marriage,?” a legal option in LA. Jindal was also a whiz kid. He had been LA.?’s Secretary of Health and Hospitals and the head of the U of Louisiana system. He had served in the Bush administration Department of Health and Human Services. He was a Rhodes Scholar who double-majored at Brown U in biology and public policy. Jindal had also excited desis, or Asian Indian-Americans, a growing, influential community that had produced, so far, a smattering of state representatives and country commissioners, but nothing like a governor. Forty percent of his campaign contributions had come from Indian-Americans, many out of state. They included individuals, firms and even the Indian hotel owners lobby group. Jindal's Indian- American contributors seemed far less put off by his repudiation of Hinduism and downplaying of his Punjabi heritage (and of his original first name, Piyush) than they were proud of him as a co-ethnic and a political pioneer. Win or lose, the meteoric ascent of Bobby Jindal provided the Bush administration and the national Republican Party with that most valuable, precious commodity, a rising star who just happened to be a person of color.
10/6/1776 Henri Christophe, future Haitian revolutionist and ruler who will become Provisional Chief of northern Haiti, he will establish himself as King Henri I in the north and build Citadelle Laferriere, was born a slave in Grenada.
10/6/1879 The 1st nonreservation Indian school was established in Carlisle, PA., with 82 American Indian students, by an Indian fighting army officer named Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924). Pratt set the tone for the schools to come by vowing to ?“kill the Indian an save the man.?” At the time he was considered a ?“reformer,?” who believed that segregating Indians of reservations kept them from entering fully into the White American civilization. Pratt also pioneered the practice of ?“outing,?” sending students to live with White, Christian families during summer breaks, to further loosen tribal bonds. His school became the model for other schools run by the government or churches, that with a ?“racist-tinged paternalism?” sought to ?“Americanize?” American Indians by eradicating their culture. Pratt was relieved of his post in 1904 and the schools finally closed in 1918.
10/6/1917 Fannie Lou (Townsend) Hamer, one of the future Black-American leaders (1964) of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (1964-71) in its unsuccessful struggle for recognition, was born in rural MS (d:3/15/77 of cancer at 59)(See: 6/9/1963).
10/6/1922 Leon H. Sullivan, future social activist, educator responsible for leading international
efforts to promote nonviolent social and economic change, who will win the Presidential Medal of Freedom and found the Phoenix-based International Foundation for Education and Self-Help that will aid hundreds of thousands of people in Africa and the US, was born in Charleston, WV (d: 4/24/2001 at age 78, Phoenix, AZ) (See: 4/24/2001).
10/6/1924 Joseph Lowery, future Black-American leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) who would broaden and revitalized SCLC in the 1970s, was born in Huntsville, AL.
10/6/1930 Hafez Assad, future President of Syria, was born.
10/6/1949 American born Iva Toguri D?’Aquino, convicted as Japanese wartime broadcaster ?“Tokyo Rose,?” was sentenced in San Francisco to 10 years in prison and fined $10,000.
10/6/1965 Patricia Harris took the post as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, becoming the 1st Black female US Ambassador.
10/6/1973 War erupted in the Middle East when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel during the Yom Kippur holiday, aka: the Yom Kippur War. Egypt regained control of the Suez Canal.
10/6/1981 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (1970-81), former winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a peace treaty with Israel, was assassinated by military extremists while reviewing a military parade (b: 12/25/1918).
10/6/1991 Black-American Anita Hill accused US Supreme Court Black Republican nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment almost 10 years after the alleged act.
10/6/1994 South African President, Nelson Mandela, addressed a joint session of the US Congress.
10/6/2001 The faith that drove Osama bin Laden and his followers was a particularly austere and conservative brand of Islam known as Wahhabism, which was instrumental in creating the Saudi monarchy and if sufficiently alienated, could tear it down. Throughout its history, the Wahhabis have fiercely opposed anything they viewed as bida, an Arabic word, usually muttered like a curse, for any change or modernization that deviates from the fundamental teachings of the Koran. Al-Wahhab decedents continued to hold prominent positions in the kingdom. (And being a descendant of the founder naturally did not automatically mean being a religious zealot. King Feisal, for example, who was a descendant on his mothers side, introduced girls schooling and television.) But above all, the Wahhabis believed their faith should spread, not giving ground in any place they conquered. Thus Saudi Arabia was a main financial backer of the mujahedeen fighting to expel the godless Communists from Muslim Afghanistan and Mr. bin Laden became the public's poster boy for that cause. Their Islam is an ascetic one. Mosques should be without decoration. There should be no public holidays other than religious ones and even the prophet's birthday should not be celebrated. Drinking alcohol was forbidden. Punishment should be meted out as described in the Koran. But just as the Christian world often found the Puritans intolerable in their strict adherence to the Scriptures, so the rest of the Islamic world did not always welcome the Wahhabis's joyless interpretation of faith. Wahhabis extolled the purist state ruled by the Taliban as one that subscribed to their vision, and they sought to replicate it. For Mr. bin Laden, who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia and enjoyed significant support in the kingdom, even Saudi Arabia's extremely conservative society and government, where the Koran was proclaimed the Constitution and all law must conform to Islamic law, or Sharia, were not pure enough. He abhorred the alliance of the ruling family with the West, their dependence underscored by the hundreds of thousands of American and other foreign troops who flowed into the kingdom to defend it during the Gulf War. And he was committed to the overthrowing of the Saudi regime (See: 1703, 1775, 9/23/1932 and 1957).
10/6/2003 Baroness Valerie Amos, the 1st Black woman appointed to Britain?’s House of Lords was appointed its leader. Baroness Amos, who in 1997 became the joint 1st Black woman, as did Baroness , to enter the unelected upper house of Parliament, replacing Lord Williams of Mostyn, who died. Baroness Amos was appointed International Development Secretary in 5/2003 after Clare Short quit over her opposition to the war in Iraq. The leader of the house, who was appointed by the government, organized the agenda for debates and other business.
10/6/2003 Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and BP chief executive Lord John Browne met to discuss BP?’s plans in Angola where the government, through state oil company Sonangol, awarded exploration rights. BP PLC intended to invest US$8 billion in Angola?’s oil sector over the next 6 years and had interests in 4 offshore blocs. Browne told reporters BP intended to train at least 700 Angolans to work in the oil and gas sectors. Angola was sub-Saharan Africa?’s 2nd-largest oil producer after Nigeria, with most of its production offshore. It produced about 900,000 barrels per day. The government had predicted output could rise to 1.6 million barrels a day by 2005. US companies ChevronTexaco and Exxon, as well as European competitors BP and TotalFinaElf, were among the energy companies pumping or exploring for oil in the country. Oil sales generated 90% of Angola?’s hard currency. Human rights groups had alleged much of the state?’s oil revenue was pocketed by corrupt officials. The government denied that.
10/6/2003 China, on the verge of its 1st attempt at manned space flight, said that it would launch a satellite to survey the moon within 3 years. Chinese scientists had fixed the route for the surveying satellite and it would take 8 or 9 days to put it into orbit, the report said. It gave no further details. The latest pronouncement on Beijing?’s bid to conquer space came as China prepared to become just the 3rd country to put a person into orbit, after the US and former Soviet Union. The manned space program was shrouded in secrecy, with speculation a launch could come during the week-long October National Day holidays, which wind up on 10/ 7/03, or later in the month. Chinese space officials had hinted they were pursuing a multi-pronged human spaceflight program, including space station construction, as well as eventual travel to the Moon, all by 2020.
10/6/2003 About 2,600 current and former Black managers were informed that the Supreme Court refused to stop them from suing food services company Sodexho Marriott Services Inc. in what the company described as the largest employment discrimination case of its kind. Nearly $1 billion was at stake, the company maintained. The justices had been asked to use the case to clarify when judges should block large class action lawsuits. They declined, without comment. Lawyers for the suing workers disputed the $1 billion amount and said that they had not sought specific damages. They want the company to revise its promotion procedures. The Black workers claimed the company broke federal civil rights laws, but the company said federal regulators had found no evidence of discrimination. Kerry Alan Scanlon of Washington, representing the workers said, in paperwork that Black managers ?“face a glass wall, as well as a glass ceiling, because they have been shunted into dead-end ?‘black?’ accounts that serve and are supervised mostly by African-Americans.?” Large class-action cases had gotten the attention of Congress, which had been considering legislation sought by industries. Among the proposals was moving large interstate cases out of state courts and into federal courts. The case was Sodexho Marriott Services v. McReynolds, 02-1731.
10/6/2003 Early results showed Lujaina bint Mohsen Haider Zabi, a businesswoman, with 1,127 votes and Ruhaila bint Amor Riyami, a former Education Ministry employee, with 741 votes, were reelected to an 83-member Advisory Council, according to preliminary results, in Oman?’s 1st elections open to all citizens rather than a handpicked elite, the Interior Minister said. The 2 women, who both won seats on the council in 2000 elections, were from the capitol, Muscat. Women in Oman, as in most of the region, wear veils and were largely segregated from men except in their homes. The council has 68 new members; 15 members were reelected. More than 500 candidates, including 15 women, were running for 3-year terms on the Shura Majlis. The Islamic-style council had no formal powers but was consulted by the Sultan on new laws and public policy. The Sultan announced universal suffrage late last year, joining other states in the oil-rich conservative Gulf region that were introducing democratic reforms.
10/7/1767 The Africans, including Kunta Kinte, were sold into slavery according to an advertisement in the MD Gazette newspaper (See: 9/29/1767).
10/7/1886 Spain abolished slavery in Cuba.
10/7/1897 Elijah Poole aka: Elijah Muhammad, will be trained by Master Farad Mohammad, founder of the Nation of Islam, will become one of the most influential leaders of the Nation of Islam and lead the organization (1934-75) to become the largest Black-American movement since Garveyism, was born in Sandersville, GA. (d:2/25/1975).
10/7/1931 Desmond Tutu, Black South African activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Anglican Archbishop of Johannesburg, South Africa, was born.
10/7/1950 The Chinese crossed the Yangtze into Central Tibet and destroyed the small garrison force at Chando, claiming Tibet had always been Chinese territory. India objected and Tibet filed protest with United Nations resulting in the Security Council approving a British proposal to let the parties negotiate among themselves.
10/7/1954 Marian Anderson became the 1st Black-American singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
10/7/1981 Egypt?’s Parliament named Vice-President Hosni Mubarak to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat.
10/7/1993 Novelist Toni Morrison received the Nobel Prize for Literature, the 1st Black-American female writer to win the Prize, the world?’s highest recognition and the most distinguished honor an author can receive.
107/1998 Arabic newspaper al-Hayat claimed Osama bin Laden had acquired nuclear weapons from former Soviet Central Asian countries using a network of ?“influential friends.?” Others were skeptical.
10/7/2000 Though the American Indian Movement (AIM) kept their word and protested the Columbus Day parade in Denver peacefully, after an 11th hour change of mind by Denver?’s Italian-Americans parade organizers, 147 protesters were arrested including Russell Means, Glenn Morris and 12 year old Ogalala Indian, David Woodcock, the youngest person detained by authorities. Means also challenged Denver to drop the word ?“Columbus?” from next year?’s parade, as have New York, San Francisco and South Dakota.
10/7/2001 Afghanistan became the recipient of US air military might as the US began its global war on terrorism and its search for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda for the terrorist attack on the US on 9/11/2001.
10/7/2001 At the United Nations' Special Session on International Terrorism, leaders of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) denounced the attacks on the USA on 9/11/2001 and pledged their support for the war on terror. Caricom urged the General Assembly to continue to strengthen UN capacity, so that it can help to eradicate such acts of terror through international cooperation.
10/07/2001 The Joint Session of the House of the People?’s Representatives and the House of Federation unanimously elected Girma Wolde Giorgis as the President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia for a 6-year term. H.E. President Girma Wolde Giorgis, a veteran politician, had wide experience in Ethiopian politics, having served under Emperor Haile Selassie and under the Derg before becoming an independent MP in the 1st democratically elected Parliament, the House of People?’s Representatives in 1995 (b: 12/1924) (See: 4/5/2004).
10/7/2001 Born Alexandre Biyidi-Awala before adopting the pen name Mongo Beti in 1954, the Cameroonian writer Mongo Beti defined himself and his work in 2 important ways. In addition to establishing himself as one of the loudest literary voices raised against European rule in Africa, he also distinguished himself as one of the most critical opponents of the corruption and mismanagement of post-colonial African dictatorships. Today, Beti?’s body of work still stands as one of the landmarks in the field of works written in French by writers from all across the African diaspora known as the Negritude Movement. Beti died at 69 of renal complications, at a hospital in Douala, Cameroon. His death closed the final chapter of a life dedicated personally, artistically and politically to the continent of Africa (b: 6/30/1932).
10/7/2002 The array of tribal regalia on the steps of the US Supreme Court during the Sovereignty Run rally, stopped and surprise passers-by, but it made a serious point. In a dramatic change from the past, Indian country feared that the biggest threat to its progress came from the Supreme Court. A rally brought representatives of 50 native nations, including Alaskans, Hawaiians and Taino from Puerto Rico, together with legal scholars, leaders of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle for a program of speeches attacking a trend in the Supreme Court that many felt were undercutting tribal sovereignty. The rally and the end of a 2,800-mile cross-country relay run across the US coincided with the opening of the Court?’s fall term. According to a statement from the NCAI, ?“the ?‘Sovereignty Run?’ was part of a larger program called the Tribal Governance and Economic Enhancement Initiative, also known as the Sovereignty Protection Initiative.?” The Initiative, which was launched in 9/2001, was a coordinated, all-tribal strategy designed to address the increasing diminishment of tribal self-government and jurisdiction as a result of recent Supreme Court rulings.
10/7/2002 In an unprecedented move, Cyrille Oguin, Ambassador to the US from the Republic of Benin, admitted his country?’s part in the trans-Atlantic slave trade that peddled millions of Africans over 300 years and was seeking reconciliation and forgiveness. Oguin said the loss of millions of Africans from the continent had led to its lack of development and prosperity. ?“If a vital part of you was missing, would you not miss it??” asked Oguin at a press conference at the embassy in Washington, DC. Oguin echoed the Republic of Benin President Mathieu Kerekou?’s sentiment expressed at a 1999 reconciliation conference: ?“We owe to ourselves never to forget these absent ones standing among us who did not die their own deaths. We must acknowledge and share responsibility in the humiliations.?” Oguin said that admitting guilt was the first step in reconciliation, to clean the blood of millions from the past from his country?’s hands.
10/7/2002 In an unprecedented move, Cyrille Oguin, Ambassador to the US from the Republic of Benin, admitted his country?’s part in the trans-Atlantic slave trade that peddled millions of Africans over 300 years and was seeking reconciliation and forgiveness. Mr. Oguin said the loss of millions of Africans from the continent had led to its lack of development and prosperity. During the peddling of human beings, an untold number of African men, women and children, between the 15th and 19th centuries cost millions of lives and robbed Africa of her most valuable natural resource, her people. The part that had always been unclear, was the involvement of African leaders in assisting in the capture, exportation and exploitation of millions of Africans. Oguin echoed Benin?’s President Mathieu Kerekou?’s sentiment expressed at a 1999 reconciliation conference: ?“We owe to ourselves never to forget these absent ones standing among us who did not die their own deaths. We must acknowledge and share responsibility in the humiliations.?” The revelations shed light on rumors and innuendoes that had plagued relationships between Africans and Black-Americans, according to some observers. That basis of mistrust, according to Oguin, kept Black-Americans from benefitting from an economic relationship with the continent.
10/7/2003 An army captain and 11 other people were arrested for plotting an alleged coup against the government of Burkina Faso, Chief Prosecutor Abdoulaye Barry told a news conference in the capitol Ouagadougou. The 12 were arrested on 10/1/03 and faced a military tribunal, Barry said. He said the group was plotting ?“subversive activities?” against the government of President Blaise Compaore and were supported by an unnamed foreign country. Burkina Faso was a poor, landlocked nation that has been led by Compaore since 1987.
10/7/2003 Ray Powell President of the National Black Police Association urged non-White candidates not to apply to the predominantly White force, saying he couldn?’t recommend working there because of pervasive discrimination after years in which reformers had pressed London?’s Metropolitan Police department to recruit more minorities. Powell, whose group represented 6,000 of the roughly 30,000 minority employees of British police forces, said the group was withholding its support from the London department?’s recruitment drives and actively discouraging potential recruits from joining. The group was outraged over the Metropolitan Police?’s treatment of Iranian-born officer Ali Dizaei, who was cleared after an extensive investigation into charges he faked expense claims and obstructed justice. Powell said it was unfair that Dizaei still had not been allowed to return to work and called the investigation a witch hunt that appeared to be motivated by racism. Home secretary David Blunkett, Britain?’s top law enforcement official, was disappointed with Powell?’s call, a Home Office spokesman said. The Home Office had ordered the department, known as the Met, to boost the representation of minority officers to 25% of the total by 2009, from 5.7%, or 1,700 officers, then. The Association's founding Chairman Mike Fuller last week was appointed Britain?’s 1st-ever Black Chief Constable, in Kent, southeast of London.
10/7/2003 The average Black expected to retire at age 59, compared with an average projected retirement age of 60 years for Hispanics and 62 for Caucasians, according to results of a telephone survey conducted by Harris Interactive Inc., Rochester, NY. When Harris researchers interviewed US residents between the ages of 24 and 57 earlier this year for Allstate Corp., Northbrook, IL., they found that 76% of the Black participants reported feeling knowledgeable about the products and tools available for retirement planning, compared with 74% of the Caucasians and 61% of the Hispanics. However, 53% of the Blacks said they felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information available on retirement planning, while 43% of Hispanics and 36% of Caucasians said the same. Forty-nine % of the Black participants agreed with the statement that ?“financial institutions aren't interested in having someone like me as a client.?” About half of the Hispanic participants and 37% of the Caucasian participants agreed with the statement.
10/08/1816 Haitian President Petion informed a 2nd French mission, sent by Louis XVIII of France to continue the negotiation on the recognition of independence by France, that Haiti was independent and free, and there should not be any further negotiations. Christophe declined to meet the French.
10/08/1820 After collapsing from a stroke in 8/1820, which left him paralyzed, King Henri Christophe committed suicide in his palace with a silver bullet, after being informed of the rebellion of his army. He was buried at the Citadel bearing his name. He was remembered as one of the heroes of the independence movement.
10/8/1871 The original draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, by President Lincoln, which was kept at the Chicago Historical Society?’s building was destroyed in ?“the Great Chicago Fire.?”
10/8/1941 Jesse Louis Jackson, future Black-American civil rights activist, founder of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) in 1971, he will be a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination beginning in 1988, pro-business motivator for Black businesses and individuals and At-Large-Ambassador for US President Clinton, was born in Greenville, SC.
10/08/1950 Direct Presidential and legislative elections were held for the 1st time, Colonel Paul E. Magloire won the elections and on 12/6 he was sworn in as President of Haiti.
10/8/1963 The Sultan of Zanzibar ceded his mainland possessions to Kenya.
10/8/1992 The West Indies poet, Derek Walcott was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
10/8/1993 The UN General Assembly lifted almost all its remaining economic sanctions against South Africa, begun in the 1960s and built up in subsequent years because of Pretoria's policy of racial apartheid.
10/8/1997 Indonesia considers asking the IMF for an emergency bailout loan.
10/8/2002 The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was unlikely to be ratified by the US Senate this year. It was a 2-decade old international treaty on women's rights that had been accepted by 170 other nations, including all the industrial powers, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Joseph Biden (D - DE) told an audience of international activists, including Queen Noor of Jordan. The 1979 treaty was signed by US President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Countries that had not ratified it included Iran, Somalia, Sudan and Syria. In the US, it had been enmeshed in conservative abortion politics. US conservatives had sidelined the treaty, arguing that it could be used to promote abortion and to undermine concepts of traditional families. The treaty sat goals, but did not have mechanisms to enforce its call to end discrimination against women (See: 9/1/2002).
10/8/2002 On a San Diego radio activist Harry Belafonte used phrases that brought to mind the Malcolm X and his famous, fervent speeches of the 1960s, describing the difference between house slaves, who lived in comfortable conditions in the master's house and loved the master and slaves laboring in the field, who hated the master. The house slaves, he implied, were mainstream civil rights groups and leaders, who he thought were too closely aligned with Whites. Belafonte described US Secretary of State Colin Powell such a person. Belafonte, who opposed a war on Iraq, isn't apologizing. Belafonte told AP he stands by his remarks likening Powell to a slave ?“permitted to come into the house of the master,?” but that he meant them not as personal attacks but as a condemnation of Bush administration policies. He said National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice had also failed to meet his high expectations for fellow minorities. ?“As a citizen, I feel it is my sacred duty to speak out when I see injustice, when I see our country going to places of folly,?” Belafonte told the AP. ?“I'd like to see both (Powell) and Condoleezza Rice show some moral backbone, show some courage, show some commitment to principles that are far higher than those being espoused by their boss,?”he said (See: 10/20/2002).
10/8/2002 Reports conflicted in the Canadian media over a proposed settlement for First Nation veterans who served in combat during WW II and Korea. Non-native soldiers were awarded $6,000 to buy land, up to $2,600 for resettlement costs, spousal benefits, vocational training and other educational benefits. By comparison, Native veterans were awarded a maximum of $2,320 and none of the other benefits the non-natives veterans were granted. Some Aboriginal veterans estimated that they were owed as much as $420,000 plus interest for the value of land non-natives received and they did not. In 2000, a government commission recommended that the 1,800 affected veterans receive compensation in the amount of $120,000 (All monetary amounts are in Canadian dollars).
10/8/2002 Pakistan successfully test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile, the 2nd test in less than a week, state-run Pakistan Television reported. The test came 2 days before Pakistan held parliamentary elections and as India conducted the final round of a disputed state election in Kashmir. On 10/4/2002, Pakistan said it had successfully test-fired a medium-range Hatf-IV (Shaheen-1) missile. Hours later, India also test-fired a short-range missile.
10/8/2003 Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye and Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) leader Pierre Nkurunziza the country?’s largest Hutu rebel group signed a comprehensive agreement to implement a ceasefire deal hammered out late last year. The agreement included concurrence on military and political issues with both leaders declaring an immediate halt to hostilities.
10/8/2003 Jarome Iginla, 26, became the 1st Black Captain in NHL history when the talented forward was tabbed to wear the ?‘C?’ by the Calgary Flames. Iginla was entering his 8th NHL season. He won the NHL scoring title in the 2001-2002 season as well as an Olympic gold medal with Canada at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Craig Conroy, Iginla?’s linemate, served as the Flames captain the past 2 seasons. Conroy and defenseman Robyn Regehr will be alternate captains.
10/8/2003 The number of minority students on campuses in the US had more than doubled since 1981, but White students were still more likely to attend college, a new report by the Minorities in Higher Education Annual Status Report issued by the American Council on Education found. The the number of minority high school graduates ages 18 to 24 attending US schools jumped from nearly 2 million in 1980-81 to 4.3 million in 2000-01. The Council said 40% of Blacks and 34% of Hispanics attended college, compared with 46% of Whites, continuing a disparity that was worse in the late 1980s. During the 20 years starting in 1980, the Council said, Black enrollment grew by 56% to more than 1.7 million; Hispanic enrollment tripled to 1.5 million. The 1 million Asian Americans attending college in 2000 also tripled the 1980 enrollment. The Council said Hispanic and Black women accounted for some of the most dramatic minority gains at both 2- and 4-year institutions. In 1980, 28% of female Black high school graduates ages 18 to 24 attended college. Two decades later, the enrollment among Black women stood at 42%. The participation rates for male Black high school graduates were not as dramatic, climbing from 30 to 37%. In 1980, 27% of Hispanic women ages 18 to 24 with high school diplomas were enrolled in college. Twenty years later, that number had increased to 37%. The percentage of Hispanic men ages 18 to 24 with a high school education attending college remained stagnant over the same period, 31%.
10/8/2003 Black leaders, many of whom had urged voters to stand down attempts to oust the Democratic governor, were saying that the landslide victory for Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was not a mandate against Democratic leadership. Instead, they said, it was more a reflection of Californians?’ attitudes about the state?’s shaky economy and their fears about their individual future financial security. And Black voters in particular, they noted, had not abandoned the party either, but were merely disinterested in this specific slate of candidates. Schwarzenegger defeated incumbent Gov. Gray Davis by nearly a million votes. Jesse Jackson, NAACP head Kweisi Mfume and several of the state?’s Black leaders had campaigned vigorously, urging Black voters to reject the recall of Davis, agreeing with the sitting governor that the election was an attempt by Republicans to hijack the election as they had done in FL. during the presidential election. Speaking weeks before the election, John Mack, President of the Los Angeles Urban League, an advocacy group that served Blacks and other minorities, complained that candidates had not reached out to Black voters. CA. voters also roundly rejected a ballot initiative, headed by Black conservative Ward Connerly, Proposition 54, that would have made it illegal for state and local governments to collect or analyze racial data.
10/8/2003 Cornelio Gama, known by his nom de guerre, Commandante L7, a reference to a long-lost ancestor, looks back over a year after East Timor gained independence. The fields of corn he planted last season have been ravaged by drought. The coconut palms were blighted, sickly brown leaves dangled from the lower reaches. The yield from his rice paddies was barely enough to provide for the former guerillas he had taken under his wing because they could not find work. He had also given a voice to the frustrations of a population that had seen the idealism of its 24-year struggle against Indonesian occupation run aground on the realities of independence in one of Asia?’s poorest lands. Two out of 5 people in East Timor lived on less than $0.55 a day, deemed the bare minimum for food, clothes and housing. Three-quarters of the population of about800,000 was without electricity and half was without safe drinking water, according to the World Bank. In recent months, officials toured the countryside to speak with villagers about their needs. President Xanana Gusmao established 2 committees to address the specific, potentially explosive complaints of veterans. Aware that Gama?’s following could make him a dangerous adversary, Gusmao last month spent the night at the Commandante's compound, reviving a relationship that dated to their school days. The government had also sought to win Gama's loyalty by naming him as a consultant to the Interior Ministry, a job with few responsibilities but one that came with a salary and an Indian-made jeep, according to foreign officials. Some former fighters had already declared outright opposition to the government, stoking fears among officials that they could face a new insurgency. Other veterans, by contrast, had been integrated into East Timor's modest military. Gama had so far struck a middle course, maintaining a distance from politics.
10/8/2003 For the 1st time, the smoking rate among Black men in the US had dipped to nearly that among White men, a victory federal officials attributed in part to a decades-old change in attitudes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 27.7% of Black men smoked in 2001, compared with 25.4% of White men. A decade before, the rates were 35 and 27%, respectively. Although the CDC did not know exactly what had caused the sharp drop, officials believed changes in attitudes among Black youths 3 decades earlier had helped reduce the number of today?’s adult smokers. The smoking rate for Black women had been lower than that of White women since 1993; in 2001, nearly 23% of White women smoked, compared with less than 18% of Black women. Surveys conducted by CDC officials in the early to mid-1990s discovered that smoking was wildly unpopular among Black youths. Hispanic and Asian men and women had lower smoking rates than Blacks or Whites in 1991, but the smoking rate was above 30% for American Indian men and women. Dr. Corinne Husten, medical officer in the CDC's Office of Smoking and Health said that states, in a time of budget crises, had not been able to provide enough funding for smoking prevention programs. Only 6 states in 2002; Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi and Ohio, spent at or above the CDC's recommended funding levels for tobacco programs, the CDC said.
10/9/1777 On and before this date, historian Burke Davis observed In Black Heroes of the American Revolution, ?“Other thousands of Blacks might have fought for the Americans, but Georgia's White Patriots feared to put muskets into the hands of their slaves (many of whom had run off to join the British, who organized Black units themselves and urged all slaves to flee their masters) and refused to send them to join General [Benjamin] Lincoln's army.?” Indeed, during the 10/9/1777, Battle of Savannah, hundreds of Blacks ran off to join the British. They built redoubts and served as infantrymen and as guides, in one memorable case helping a British Colonel surprise the Americans by showing him a path through a swamp.
10/9/1781 Crispus Attucks was one of more than 5,000 Blacks who had fought for independence by the end of the Revolutionary War.
10/9/1806 Benjamin Banneker, a self-taught mathematician and builder (at age 21) of the 1st striking clock in the US, an amateur astronomer whose calculations for solar and lunar eclipses appeared in 29 editions of his almanacs (he correctly predicted the eclipse that occurred on 4/14/1789), published from 1792-97, died at the age of 74 in Ellicott Mills, MD., there are also 2 other dates of his death, 10/25 and 10/26/1806 (b: 11/9/1731, Baltimore County, MD.)
10/9/1906 Leopold Sedar Senghor, future poet and President of Senegal (1960-80), was born (d: 12/20/2001 at 95, France) (See:12/11/2001).
10/9/1929 Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial, future 1st Black Mayor of New Orleans (1978-82), was born in New Orleans, LA. (d: 12/24/1989 at age 60, New Orleans, LA.).
10/9/1930 Laura Ingalls became the 1st woman to fly across the US as she completed a none-stop journey from Roosevelt Field in New York to Glendale, California.
10/9/1939 Ana Marie (Alire) Sandoval, who after high school will visit Chicano activist Corky Gonzales, will become active in Denver Democratic politics, who later will become involved with the Chicano Movement, the War on Poverty, United Mexican American Students, United Farm Workers, Crusade for Justice and will become a member of the Black Panther Party. In 1986 she will be diagnosed with thyroid cancer and read about the high drop-out rate of the low-income students in Denver Public Schools, she will begin another crusade for them because she will believe that all children should be educated equally, regardless of their economic status or the color of their skin, was born at home in Denver, CO. (d: ?/?/1994) (See: 6/21/2001).
10/9/1940 US President FD Roosevelt?’s (D-NY) White House released a statement which said that government "policy is not to intermingle colored and white enlisted personnel in the same regimental organizations."
10/9/1943 The 99th Fighter Squadron was paired with the all-White 79th Fighter Group and for the 1st time they were integrated in missions and they were no longer restricted to escort duties as they bombed key German targets.
10/9/1961 Tanganyika became independent within the British Commonwealth.
10/9/1962 The Republic of Uganda, formerly apart of the Azanian Empire, The Kingdom of Buganda, gained its independence from Britain. Its capitol city is Kampala A coalition government headed by Dr Obote and a new Constitution which provided for a federation of the country?’s 4 regions - Ankole, Buganda, Bunyoro and Toro.
10/9/1963 Uganda became a Republic within the British Commonwealth, with Mutesa II, the King of Buganda, as non-executive President of the country.
10/9/1967 Che Guevara the former Cuban guerilla leader was executed at age 39 in Bolivia while attempting to incite revolution (b: 6/14/1928 in Argentina).
10/9/1990 The 1st nine redress payments were made at a Washington, D.C. ceremony, where 107 year-old Mamoru Eto of Los Angeles was the 1st to receive his check.
10/9/1998 Hawkish Ariel Sharon returned to the center of power in Israel as the country?’s new Foreign Minister.
10/9/2000 The Philippine presidential crisis began when Governor Luis Singson, a longtime friend of President Joseph Estrada, said he provided the President with more than $8 million in payoffs from illegal gambling and $2.6 million from tobacco taxes.
10/9/2000 Bernie Grant, the former UK Labour MP for Tottenham and Black rights champion will continue to fight for equality from beyond the grave, thanks to the Bernie Grant Trust, launched today. The trust will promote racial justice and focus on community issues and provide a central body for local-level equal-rights campaigns. It will also preserve documents and memoirs written by Grant and allow public access to these items. Mr Grant's widow, Sharon, told press: ?“We want the trust's projects to bring hope and opportunity to Black and ethnic minority people in the UK. The trust aims to inspire our communities, promote social innovation and encourage social inclusion, just as Bernie did.?” (See: 4/8 / 2000 and 11/1/2001).
10/9/2001 When asked how Blacks workers will fare in a weak US economy wounded by terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001 and plagued by growing uncertainty as America goes to war, a Black southern business executive, who asked to remain nameless, 1st paused. Then he uttered a well-known truism: "When white folks catch a cold, black folks catch pneumonia. If jobs start disappearing, who do you think will lose them first?" (Also See: Banks, 10/4/2001).
10/9/2001 A slave cemetery with well over 40 graves was discovered from the Jefferson-era at Monticello in 2/2001 was commemorated by several hundred people, some perhaps descendants of those buried in the graveyard with little ceremony so long ago. With African rites, gospel music and a reading of the list of known names of about 400 slaves who toiled at Jefferson's plantation from 1770 to 1827, the unmarked cemetery was restored to history. The cemetery was located several thousand feet from Jefferson's home in a thin grove of red oaks, chestnut oaks and black gum. There were no known written records of the graves of Blacks on the Monticello grounds and no slave burials from Jefferson's time had been
previously identified.
10/9/2001 Two days after the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan became the recipients of US and British air bombings, the Pentagon released dramatic satellite photos showing that one of Osama bin Laden's terrorist training camps was pulverized to dust by US warplanes in the opening hours of ?“Operation Enduring Freedom.?” The vivid demonstration of US firepower came as the Pentagon intensified the pressure on bin Laden and his Taliban hosts with a ferocious 3rd wave of airstrikes - day and night assaults on military targets throughout Afghanistan. US Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers released 3 sets of before-and-after photos of targets selected in the initial wave of attacks Sunday (10/7/01) night, to back up claims of success. One set showed the utter destruction of the Garmabak Ghar terror camp near Kandahar, a major al Qaeda center, which was flattened Sunday by 500-pound gravity bombs dropped by B-52s.
10/9/2002 The razor-thin margins separating political races across the country made the Black vote crucial in various statewide races. While the electorate remained almost evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, the GOP had been trying to make inroads in several races. This move reflected a major shift in the party, but some believed that the shift was purely pragmatic. ?“In the long term it is going to be a disaster for (the Republican) Party because the white, non-Hispanic population is growing slower than the minority population,?” said David Bositis, a political expert from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. And unlike the growing Hispanic population, one-third of which did not have citizenship and couldn?’t vote, most of the Black population, which had been overwhelmingly supportive of the Democratic Party since the 1960's, were citizens and had access to the franchise.
10/9/2002 Michelle Bachelet Jeria, 50, was appointed Chile's 1st female Defense Minister earlier this year, but before to bridge the gap between democracy and the armed forces, she said, civilians needed to arm themselves with knowledge to discern the rights and wrongs of the military. She took an advanced course at the National Academy of Political and Strategic Studies in Chile, graduating at the top of the class in 1996. In 1998 she won a scholarship to attend another advanced course, at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, in continental defense. She advised Ministers of Defense. Then came the call from President Ricardo Lagos: would you like the job yourself? She had about 5 minutes to think about it, and she said yes. Bachelet was to meet with US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and to urge him to attend the 5th conference of the hemisphere's Defense Ministers, scheduled for 11/18 in Santiago. That will be the 1st meeting of the group since the attacks of 9/11/2001. The 34 countries planned to discuss regional responses to old and new ?“asymmetrical threats?” such as terrorism, drugs, illegal migration and organized crime. Also to be discussed was a revision of the 1947 Rio Treaty, the hemisphere's collective security accord. After 9/11, the Rio Treaty members invoked it as a gesture of support for the US (See: 1/7/2002).
10/9/2002 His party defeated at the polls, former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, 69, said he will resign as Trinidad and Tobago's main opposition leader. Panday, who served as the Caribbean country's 1st Premier of East Indian descent from 1995-2001, said he would step down within months. The electoral win for th Black-dominated governing party ended a deadlock that paralyzed Parliament. It was the 3rd election in as many years and the 1st of those to produce a clear victory. The country's 1.3 million people remain deeply divided in politics, with those of African descent largely celebrating Manning's win and many of East Indian origin saying they feared it would lead to crisis. Preliminary results showed Manning's People's National Movement won 20 seats and Panday's United National Congress the remaining 16, officials said. The 2-island nation gained independence 40 years ago from Britain. With slavery's abolition in 1834, Blacks abandoned sugar plantations and the British brought indentured laborers from India. Blacks dominated politics for decades until recent years, when the Indian population grew even, resulting in repeated close elections.
10/9/2002 The most visible example of the power of the Black vote had been in the Maryland Governor's race. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who was seeking to become the state's 1st female Governor, raised eyebrows when she chose Admiral Charles Larson as her running mate. ?“A lot of people were pissed off when she picked a white Republican to be her Lieutenant Governor,?” said David Bositis, a political expert from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, ?“There were whites who she could have picked who had closer relationships with the black community.?” Townsend chose Larson in an effort to appeal to conservative voters in the rural and coastal sections of the state. Her opponent, US Representative Robert Ehrlich, countered by choosing GOP State Chairman Michael Steele, a Black, to be his running mate. Suddenly Townsend, who had been way ahead in the polls, was neck and neck with Ehrlich.
10/9/2002 Sudan said its military regained control of a southern town whose capture by rebels last month prompted the government to suspend talks aimed at ending the 19-year civil war. An army statement read over state-run television said government troops, police officers, paramilitary forces and volunteers ?“scored a new victory and entered the great town of Torit . . . bringing it back to the homeland.?” Torit was strategically important because it was on a major road leading to the city of Juba, the southern headquarters for government forces in the south.
10/9/2002 The Great Wall of China just got a little bit greater after a new 50-mile section of China's iconic structure has been discovered in northwestern China, centuries after being submerged by the sands that move across the arid area each year, the Chinese government said. The segment, on the southern slope of Helan Mountain in the Ningxia region, sits about 25 miles west of the regional capitol of Yinchuan. That part of the wall was built in 1531 and gradually buried by moving sand. When the section was repaired in 1540, 3 watchtowers were added at different parts of the section, which meandered from east to west. The 21-foot-high chunk of wall was 20 feet wide at its base and 11 feet wide at the top. It had 7 drainage ditches and parapets at both flanks of the wall. The government said some parts were more fortified than others, being protected by stone segments that formed a ?“double-layered wall.?” The Great Wall, from its starting point in the northwestern province of Gansu to Shanhaiguan Pass on the shores of Bohai Bay along China's east coast, was believed to span up to 3,700 miles through the north, which dynastic China's Emperors considered most vulnerable to attack. A series of dynasties built the Great Wall over the course of centuries to protect China from outside invasions. But the Ningxia region in particular long had been China's front line and a place deemed worthy of special fortification.
10/9/2003 The National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM) in Memphis, TN., announced the recipients of its 2003 Freedom Award will include Maxine Smith, former Executive Secretary of the Memphis branch of the NAACP and former president Bill Clinton. The NCRM Freedom Award honored individuals who had made significant contributions to civil rights. Previous winners included Rosa Parks, former president Jimmy Carter, Secretary of State Colin Powell and actor Sidney Poitier. The museum was located in and around what was once the Lorraine Motel, the site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?’s 1968 assassination. Underwritten by the International Paper Corp. and the Hyde Family Foundation, the awards would be presented in Memphis on 10/28/03.
10/9/2003 Just 58 Kansas farmers borrowed from funds earmarked for traditionally disadvantaged groups, most of the money went to the 40 women who borrowed from the program, only 18 borrowers were from minority groups: 12 American Indians, 3 Blacks and 3 Hispanics, by the US Department of Agriculture?’s Farm Service Agency, taking out only $1.4 million from the $5.2 million available, said Arlyn Stiebe, the agency's farm loan chief in Kansas. Critics contended that the minority loan program did not address decades of past discrimination they said forced many Black farmers to become delinquent, either to the agency or other creditors. Tom Burrell, President of the Tennessee-based Black Farmers and Agriculturalist Association, said the loans were a scheme to expropriate land from Black farmers. He said the agency discriminated against them for decades and now was making it impossible for them to borrow money when they became delinquent on loans. But Jim Radintz, director of agency's loan making division in Washington, DC, said last year the agency loaned money to 694 Black farmers. Nationwide, the agency loaned $373.69 million to 4,181 minority or women borrowers under 4 major programs. The money actually loaned fell short of the available $574 million.
10/9/2003 The entire population of the Chagos archipelago, 2,000 people according to the islanders, 1,000 according to the British government, were relocated between 1967 and 1973 (at the height of the Cold War), lost a court fight in Britain on for compensation and the right to return. A few were sent to the Seychelles, but most were sent to Mauritius. Britain leased Diego Garcia, halfway between Africa and Southeast Asia and part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, to the US and in 1971 barred anyone from entering the islands except by permit. Judge Duncan Ouseley at London's High Court ruled that the islanders and their families, who now number more than 5,000, had no reasonable grounds for bringing the compensation claim and seeking the restoration of their property.
10/9/2003 China was counting down to the launch of a man into Earth orbit, which would fulfill what Chinese officials said was a long-held dream for the emerging world power and make it the 3rd country to embark on manned spaceflight. A air force pilot, being called in English ?“taikonaut,?” from the Chinese word for outer space, taikong, was scheduled to board a 3-seat spacecraft on a launch pad in western China on the morning of 10/15/03. The craft, called Shenzhou 5, or Divine Vessel 5, was to fly once around the globe and land in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. There had been no official announcement of a date, but Chinese officials had hinted strongly that the launch would occur that month and Chinese tour agencies had been selling package tours near the Jiuquan launch site in Gansu province. China started the program to put a man in space with the launch in 1970 of its 1st satellite, East Is Red. Since then China had sent 77 satellites into space. The manned space program was canceled because of a lack of funds but was resumed in 1992, under the code name Project 921. Since 1999, 4 unmanned Shenzhou capsules had been launched, orbiting Earth for up to a week and landing by parachute in Inner Mongolia region. Some experts worry that China had not carried out enough test flights to ensure the safety of space travelers. The life support systems on Shenzhou 3 were believed to have failed in 2001. Western experts said they believed China had come this far this fast because of assistance from Russia, which was the only country other than the US with a record of manned spaceflight.
10/9/2003 Gerson Jesus Bispo, who spoke with Asthma Jahangir, a UN official about alleged police abuses in Brazil was gunned down. Marina Castro, a spokeswoman for the federal human rights office, said he was the 2nd person killed after testifying to the envoy. Bispo was killed a day after the UN human rights official, told Brazil's President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, that police abuses, including torture and killings, were common in Brazil. Bispo met with Jahangir on 9/20/03 and told her that his brother had died hours after being detained by police in 8/2002. Jahangir was the Special UN Investigator of extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions. ?“Bispo was killed because of the information he had on the death squads active in the state of Bahia,?” said Sandra Carvalho of the Global Justice Center, a Brazilian human rights organization. ?“He obtained this information, which he must have given Mrs. Jahangir, while investigating his brother?’s death. Bispo was the 2nd witness heard by Jahangir to be killed, Carvalho said. Flavio Manoel da Silva was slain on 9/27/03 in Pedras de Fogo.
10/9/2003 Vietnam and the US agreed to allow direct passenger and cargo flights between the 2 countries for the 1st time since the end of the Vietnam War. The agreement was initialed in Hanoi by Thamvu Hien, Deputy Director of Vietnam's Civil Aviation Administration and Laura Faux-Gable, deputy director of the Office of Aviation Negotiations at the State Department. Vietnam's relations with the US had broadened since a trade agreement went into effect in 12/2001. The pact significantly increased trade between the 2 countries, but negotiators had been unable to reach an agreement on air travel. At present, American carriers must have sharing agreements with other airlines that operated there and passengers flying between the 2 countries had to change planes in some country that flew to Vietnam. No details were available on when direct commercial air service between the 2 countries would begin.
10/10/1899 Black-Americans I. R. Johnson patented the bicycle frame and J. W. Butts received a patent for a luggage carrier.
10/10/1901 Frederick Douglas Patterson, future Black-American veterinarian, educator, President of Tuskegee Institute (1935-53) and founder of the United Negro College Fund (1943), was born in Washington, DC (d: 4/26/1988).
10/10/1902 Black-American Charlotte (Lottie) Hawkins Brown, founded the Palmer Memorial Institute - a school for young women, in Sedalia, NC. She was born Lottie Hawkins, in Henderson, NC and died at age 78 (1883 - 1961).
10/10/1911 Revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen overthrew China?’s Manchu Dynasty.
10/10/1911 (Double Tenth), was/is the day the Republic of China (Taiwan) commemorates/ed as the start of the revolution against the last Emperor of China.
10/10/1927 Hazel W. Johnson, future 1st Black-American woman to achieve the rank of Brigadier General (9/1979) in the US Army, was born Westchester, PA.
10/10/1943 Chiang Kai-Shek took the oath of office as President of China.
10/10/1944 One of the Black tank units deployed to Europe in WWII - the 761st Tank Battalion (also known as the "Black Panther" Tank Battalion) -was activated at Camp Claiborne, LA. with 30 Black officers, 676 enlisted men and 6 White officers landed at Omaha Beach attached to the 26th Infantry Division, XII Corps, which was part of General George S. Patton?’s 3rd Army. One of the more notable members of this well-known unit was Staff Sergeant Ruben Rivers, who was one of 7 Blacks to be belatedly awarded the Medal of Honor and by the end of the war, unit members had won 11 Silver Stars, 69 Bronze Stars, and numerous other awards (See: 4/1/1942).
10/10/1957 Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, the Finance Minister of Ghana, after being refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant, received an apology from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
10/10/1970 Fiji became independent after nearly a century of British rule.
10/10/1973 Richmond Hill was elected Mayor of Greenville, GA, the 1st Black Mayor in the history of Georgia.
10/10/1978 Black-American US Congressman Ralph Metcalfe former champion sprinter during 1930s, Chicago Alderman (1955 - 1971), President Pro Tempore of the Chicago City Council (1969-71) and US Congressman, D-IL, died at age 68 while serving in the Congress (b: 5/29/1910, Atlanta, GA.).
10/10/1978 The $1.00 Susan B. Anthony coin was authorized when US President Carter signed a Bill of authorization.
10/10/1980 Atlanta?’s Martin Luther King, Jr Center for Nonviolent Social Change was declared a national historic site.
10/10/1992 The last Columbus Day parade in Denver, Colorado was canceled at the last minute because the 120 marchers were outnumbered 10-1 by protestors led by the American Indian Movement (AIM), who said the parade was offensive, calling Columbus a slave trader who committed genocide on their people. Members of the Hispanic and other minorities communities supported the Indians. AIM called the parade cancellation a victory and vowed never to allow another Columbus Day parade in Denver.
10/10/1995 Burma?’s National League for Democracy (NLD) reappointed Aung San Suu Kyi as it Party?’s General Secretary in defiance of the State Law and Order Restoration Council?’s (SLORC) ban on changes to Party leadership.
10/10/1998 A New York judge awarded $185,000. In damages to a White former prosecutor who was falsely accused by Al Sharpton and other advisers to Tawana Brawley of taking part in the alleged rape of the Black woman.
10/10/2000 Sirimavo (Ratwatte) Bandaranaike, former 2nd woman to head a government - Prime Minister of Ceylon/Sri Lanka, 7/20/1960-65, 1970-80, 1994-8/1/00 and declared the island nation a Republic (5/72), died at age 84 in Attanagalla, Ceylon (b: 4/17/1916, Attanagalla, Sri Lanka).
10/10/2001 Black Muslims in the US, who numbered about 3 million, were not cheering the air strikes against Afghanistan, nor were they applauding US President Bush's efforts to get Osama bin Laden ?“dead or alive.?” Instead, they said, bin Laden should be tried in an international court of law and diplomacy, not military action, should be the focus of US policy in Afghanistan. At his mosque in Brooklyn, spiritual leader Siraj Wahaj will focus on one topic when he leads prayer services 10/12/2001: the US-led bombing of Afghanistan, which he said was inhumane. ?“I wish the government would find a better way,?” said Wahaj, whose mosque, Masjid Al Taqwa, was predominantly Black-American. ?“I know it's difficult. I'm 100% supportive of our government going after criminals. I encourage Muslims everywhere to assist in abducting and capturing criminals. But that's not the issue to us. We're concerned about killing innocent people and civilians. And I don't think the Taliban is the issue.?”
10/10/2001 An ambitious ?“Marshall plan for Africa,?” to combat poverty and disease and allow the continent access to markets in the industrialised world, passed its 1st hurdle in Brussels. The Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, who held the Chairmanship of the European Union, said a 5-point plan laying the basis for the New Africa Initiative (NAI) had been agreed between him and 5 African Presidents, including Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo and Senegal's Abdoulaye Wade. After meeting the African presidents, Mr Verhofstadt said the NAI, which aimed to end wars, poverty and disease on the continent by 2015, should be supported because ?“it is based on ideas from Africa itself.?” Many analysts believed the 1st tangible economic benefits for Africa would come with the abolition of the Common Agricultural Policy whose system of subsidies results in the dumping of foodstuffs on the continent and prevented African countries from exporting their products at competitive prices.
10/10/2001 At a emergency gathering of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, in Doha, Qatar, called by Iran, 56 Islamic nations issued a statement that avoided directly condemning the United States' attacks against the Taliban in Afghanistan, while warning against inflicting civilian casualties or striking against other Arab states. Evidence of significant opposition could have shredded American efforts to build an alliance that included Arabs and Muslims against Osama bin Laden and other terrorists.
10/10/2002 Blacks had a genetic double-whammy rarely found in Whites that dramatically increased the risk of congestive heart failure in Blacks and may help explain why they were more likely than Whites to get the disease, researchers said. Nearly 4.8 million Americans had congestive heart failure. That meant about 733,500 Blacks had the disease. It showed up earlier and was more likely to have serious complications in Blacks than in Whites. Also, Blacks did not receive as much benefit from or need higher doses of ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers, 2 common groups of medicines for heart disease.
10/10/2002 Yellowworld.org launched Project Anti-Disguise, a relentless, grass-roots campaign to raise awareness of the blatantly anti-Asian costume ?“Kung Fool.?” A petition was immediately created to offer a mechanism by which the frustration, anger and firm resolution of the Asian community could simultaneously and constructively be channeled. With the generous support of the Organization of Chinese Americans, San Diego, Project Anti-Disguise launched a blitzkrieg-style media assault, voicing its message in television, radio, print and online coverage. Eight days and over 8,300 signatures later, Disguise, the largest costume manufacturer in the world, had gotten the message. ?“Disguise, Inc. will take steps to ensure these costumes will not be sold and sent an additional letter to retailers today requesting that they remove all 'Kung Fool' costumes from their shelves by October 18, 2002,?” affirmed Disguise EVP Stephen C. Stanley. ?“Disguise is also sending a letter apologizing for any insult or offense related to this issue, and we will continue to work diligently to ensure that these costumes are returned for destruction (See: 1965, 1995 and 2/3/2002).?”
10/10/2002 By sheer serendipity, on a summer day in 2000, as the Ulises was towing its sonar back and forth across the ocean unexpected rock formations appeared on the sonar readouts. Sonar images taken from a research ship 2,000 feet above were even more puzzling. The images were found by Advanced Digital Communications (ADC), a Canadian company that was mapping the ocean bottom of Cuba's territorial waters under contract with the government of President Fidel Castro and looked like fragments of a city, in a place where nothing man-made should exist, spanning nearly 8 square miles of a deep-ocean plain off Cuba's western tip. The discovery immediately sparked speculation about Atlantis, the fabled lost city. ADC?’s main mission was to hunt for shipwrecks filled with gold and jewels and to locate potentially lucrative oil and natural gas reserves in deep water that Cuba did not have the means to explore (See: 8/15/2002).
10/10/2002 Paul Robeson, the deep-voiced singer and pioneering civil-rights activist, was honored at the north London home in Branch Hill, Hampstead, where he lived from 1929-30. Singer Cleo Lane unveiled a blue plaque from the preservation group English Heritage which was attached to the house. Robeson, was one of the 1st Black performers to gain international acclaim. Blacklisted during the McCarthy era for his political beliefs, he died in 1976.
10/10/2002 In a bitter dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria over an oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula in the Gulf of Guinea which had become a potential military flashpoint, the World Court ruled in favor of Cameroon. The 2 neighbors agreed last month to step back from the brink of confrontation after talks with the UN. ?“Sovereignty over the peninsula lies with Cameroon,?” court president Gilbert Guillaume said in a ruling at the Peace Palace in The Hague. Cameroon's title over the area was rooted in an agreement reached between Germany and Britain before WW I, Guillaume said in a long and complex ruling read out in court. Nigeria and Cameroon had clashed repeatedly over the disputed maritime border area of 400 sq miles. The threat of war in the Middle East had stoked growing international interest in West Africa as an alternative source of crude oil (See: 10/24/2002).
10/10/2003 Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, 56, became the 1st Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for a fearless defense of human rights in an award designed to spur wider democracy in the Islamic world. The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Ebadi, Iran's 1st female judge before the 1979 Islamic revolution forced her to step down in favor of men, for battling to defend the rights of women and children. Ebadi won from a field of 165 candidates. Ebadi was the 11th woman to win since the Nobel prize was founded in 1901, the 1st Muslim woman Laureate and the 3rd Muslim winner, after Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in 1994 and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978. Iranian state media reported the award without comment and reaction otherwise reflected the split between President Mohammad Khatami's reformist government and powerful hard-liners. But Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a leading reformist, said the award was ?“very good news for every Iranian?” and a sign of the active role played by Iranian women in politics.
10/10/2003 Africa was to get the lion?’s share of a 15 billion dollar pledge by US president George W. Bush to fight AIDS, Randall Tobias, a top Washington official said in Gaborone, Botswana?’s capitol. ?“The intention is to devote $15 billion to 14 countries which account for 50% of the world?’s HIV infection. Twelve of those countries are in Africa and Botswana is one of them,?” Tobias told reporters. Botswana was one of the countries with the highest adult infection rate in the world with nearly 40% either being HIV positive or having full-blown AIDS. The 12 countries earmarked to receive funding were: Botswana, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
10/10/2003 The Gurkhas, the feared Nepalese fighters who had served with the British armed forces for 200 years, failed in their long battle for pay and pension equality with their British counterparts. The Appeal Court in London refused to overturn a High Court ruling dismissing claims by the Gurkhas that as they had risked their lives for Britain, they should receive the same rewards as British soldiers. There were some 26,000 Gurkha pensioners and a decision in their favor could have cost the government millions of pounds. The court dismissed an appeal in a test case by 7 Gurkhas brought on the basis of their lower pensions, reduced pay when they go home on leave and fewer rights to have their families with them when posted abroad. The group had argued among other things that a Gurkha who retired after a maximum of 17 years service received a pension equivalent to $150 a month, compared with $1,030 for his British counterpart after 22 years' service. A basis for the smaller pensions had been the lower cost of living Gurkhas face in Nepal when their service finished.
10/10/2003 Senior officials preparing for the biggest summit of Islamic leaders, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Muslim world's largest organization, since the 9/11/01 attacks gathered in Malaysia amid worries that disunity was sidelining the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. The OIC was pushing hard to become the unified voice of Islam and to shake perceptions the religion was linked to violence. About 35 heads of state from the 57-member OIC were due to attend the 10/16-18/03 talks, the group's 1st since 2000. In the past, the organization?’s diversity had meant it rarely had been able to agree on any issue except one: support for the Palestinians against Israel. Some divisions were already apparent. Staunch opponents of the Iraq war had not forgiven Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar for allowing their territory to be used by US-led coalition forces. Also, many Muslim countries were angered by Turkey?’s offer this week to send peacekeepers to Iraq to bolster the US-led forces. Syed Hamid Albar, the Foreign Minister of Malaysia, the incoming Chair of the OIC said that most Muslim nations would refuse to participate in Iraqi peacekeeping unless the force was under UN command. Malaysia initially refused to allow Iraq?’s US-appointed Governing Council to attend the summit, but reversed itself after a US-led diplomatic push. Many Muslims saw the Council as a puppet administration. The summit would also elect a new OIC Secretary-General. Malaysia's outspoken Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, 77, had been mentioned as a possible candidate, though government officials said he wouldn't run. Mahathir was due to retire at the end of 10/03. But Mahathir has criticized Muslims as weak and unable to stand up to the West. He led an unsuccessful attempt last year to have the OIC brand Palestinian suicide bombings as terrorism.
10/11/1492 Blacks of mixed descendants, Eskimos, Aleuts and Indians/Natives "owned" 100% of all of the Americas. As an example, the Inca Empire extended from what?’s now southern Colombia to central Chile, which Columbus didn?’t reach but the inhabitants didn?’t think of their whereabouts as ?“the New World?” nor did the Incas or anyone else living in the Americas. It was just their Home.
10/11/1865 Paul Bogle led a march on the Morant Bay courthouse that began the 'Morant Bay Rebellion' against the Whites and the colonial government, his actions resulted in him being hanged on the orders of Governor Eyre, subsequently he became a Jamaican national hero
10/11/1887 Black inventor A. Miles patented the elevator.
10/11/1950 Patty Murray, future Democratic US Senator from Washington, was born.
10/11/1954 The Viet Minh took formal control of North Vietnam and (?)Ho Chi Minh became President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
10/11/1985 The importation of South African gold coins known as Krugerrands was banned by US President Reagan.
10/11/1992 LeRoy Walker, who had served as a professor, coach and Chancellor of North Carolina Central University, Durham, was elected the 1st Black President of the US Olympic Committee.
10/11/2001 In the wake of continuing incidents of anthrax exposure, illness and death, and fears of future bioterrorism attacks, the spotlight was directly on US Surgeon General David Satcher, who had made several recent appearances on national television to calm the fears of a frightened country. With a flurry of television appearances, Satcher was more prominent than ever. He was among the 1st to acknowledge that the government had made missteps since the anthrax scare 1st hit the US. On the Today Show Satcher explained that medical experts did not realize anthrax spores in an unopened envelope could endanger postal workers as well as those who opened the mail, an oversight that resulted in the additional deaths of 2 postal workers in the DC area. Satcher told Today Show viewers, ?“The fact of the matter is that we were wrong because we haven't been here before, and we're learning together.?” Such straight talk was refreshing after weeks of conflicting information from government sources. But according to The Washington Post, Satcher was not ?“allowed?” on the scene to help coordinate anthrax awareness until mid-October, once Tom Ridge, National Director of Homeland Security, had Satcher ?“liberated from the gulag.?” Satcher's tenure in office had never been simple. He was tapped for the spot after it lay empty for 4 years. Now, as a Democratic, a Clinton appointee whose term expired in 2/2002, serving a Republican President, Satcher was at last becoming a familiar face, just as he's about to run out of time (See: 3/2/1941 and 2/13/1998).
10/11/2001 Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, won the 2001 Nobel prize for Literature. Naipaul, long tipped for the prestigious award, won the $1 million prize for combining existing genres into a style of his own in works that compelled readers ?“to see the presence of suppressed histories,?” the Swedish Academy said in its citation. Naipaul, considered the leading novelist to emerge from the English-speaking Caribbean, was a master of English prose style who was known for his studies of alienation, an individual's sense of being on the outside of society. His works ranged from short stories, through the novel, to travel writing, was born in 1932, near Port of Spain in Trinidad, in a family descended from Hindu immigrants from northern India. His father was a journalist and writer.
10/11/2001 Telemundo, Inc. of Denver, CO., a distant #2 in the Spanish-speaking TV market, was acquired by NBC for a reported $2.7 billion. Clearly, NBC was hot after Hispanics, one of the fastest growing demographic segments in the US and estimated to attain a buying-power base of $1 trillion by about 2010. Telemundo accounted for an estimated 20% of the Hispanic viewing market in the US, that aired 2nd-rate wacky game shows and telenovelas featuring buxom, blond Latinas with eyes so blue you?’d swear you were watching the Sweden channel. Spanish TV was often ripped for racism by its own viewers who charged it with an obsession with fairer-skinned, lighter-haired Latinos. In 1997, Telemundo sold a 75% stake in the company to John Malone?’s Liberty Media Corp. and Sony Corp.
10/11/2003 The trial of Mark Benschop, a talk show host, charged with treason in Guyana had been delayed by a series of motions by other inmates waiting for their cases to be heard. Benschop, who was being held without bail, had pleaded innocent and said he believed the case was politically motivated. He was accused along with former opposition legislator Phillip Bynoe of trying to overthrow the government by allegedly inciting a group of protesters to storm President Bharrat Jagdeo's office compound on 7/3/2002. Benschop's trial was due to begin 10/9/03, but 8 inmates awaiting murder and armed robbery trials in separate cases filed motions in High Court saying an early hearing into Benschop's case would further delay theirs. Justice Jainarine Singh spent most of the week hearing motions from the defense lawyers for the 8 men who also want their names to be on the docket for the 10/03 sessions of the High Court.
10/12/1492 Christopher Columbus made landfall in the Bahamas and accidentally reached ?“the New World/the Americas,?” which weren?’t new to the people who lived there.
10/12/1492 RAWM Editorial: Although Christopher Columbus along with the many other peoples of all colors during his time, were no friends of ours, they were doing what came natural during their period, the 15th century. We couldn?’t drag and/or bribe any of the so-called wronged peoples of today back to a pre-whatever era. All of the peoples with power in the world than, be it in Africa, Asia, the Americas or Europe had and were doing to their own peoples and strangers the same things, from slavery to torture. All of the perpetrators slept well, each protected by their own cultural norms! Maybe, we were from one of those perpetratory families, but were later enslaved! Hind sight is 20/20, until we truly look in the mirror. The UN Declaration on Human Rights is a prime example, what nation, including the signors really pays attention to it?
10/12/1904 William Montague Cobb, will become a physician, longtime Professor of Anatomy and Editor of the Journal of the National Medical Association from 1949-77, was born in Washington, DC. (d: ?/?/1990).
10/12/1919 Dorrie Miller, future Black-American mess boy on the USS Arizona will shoot down 4 attacking Japanese aircraft on 12/4/1941 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was born in Waco, TX. During that time Blacks in the Navy were only allowed to be cooks or menial laborers and even after his act of heroism, he was denied training and sent off to cook school.
10/12/1925 Xavier University, the 1st Black roman catholic college, was founded in New Orleans, LA.
10/12/1932 Richard Claxton Gregory aka: Dick Gregory, future Black-American civil rights activist, Presidential candidate on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket (1968) and comedian, was born in St. Louis, MO.
10/12/1950 Ronald McNair, future PhD, 2nd Black-American (US) astronaut (Challenger-1984), was born in Lake City, SC.(d: in Challenger explosion 1/28/1986).
10/12/1961 Eugene Jacques Bullard ,joined the French Foreign Legion in 10/1914, as WW I began. He was wounded twice. In 10/1916, he was selected for pilot training and during 5/1917, he became the world's 1st Black fighter pilot. As an enlisted pilot, Bullard scored 2 ?“kills,?” but only one of them was confirmed. His 2nd kill was early in 11/1917. When the US entered the war in 1917, Bullard volunteered his services to the Army Air Service but at the time, it barred Blacks from flying. Thus, the Army denied Bullard the opportunity to fly for his country. He married a countess and became the father of 2 daughters. When WW II erupted, he was a member of the underground and an associate of the famed French spy and resistance leader Cleopatra Terrier. He was severely wounded in 7/1940 fighting Nazis in Europe and was evacuated to NYC. In 1954, Bullard was recalled to Paris by the French government to rekindle, along with 2 White Frenchmen, the everlasting flame at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc of Triumph in Paris. A year later, President Charles De Gaulle internationally embraced him as a French hero and he later died at age 61. He was buried with honors by French war officers in Flushing, NY (b: 1894, Columbus, GA.)(See: 5/7/1917).
10/12/1968 The Republic of Equatorial Guinea, formerly Spanish Guinea, gained its independence from Spain. Its capitol is Malabo and it is one of the few African countries whose official language is Spanish.
10/12/1972 Forty-six (46) Black and White sailors were injured in a race riot aboard the aircraft carrier, Kitty Hawk off the coast of North Vietnam.
10/12/1989 George Beavers, Jr., last surviving founder of Golden State Life Insurance Company of Los Angeles, CA., he co-founded the company in 1925, which was the 3rd largest Black-American life insurance company, with $120 million in assets and $5 billion of insurance in force, died.
10/12/1992 Anti-Quincentenary protests by Native Americans and other ethnic minorities against the 500th anniversary of Columbus?’ arrival in the Americas and the impact that it had on the Americas and the worlds of non-Europeans.
10/12/1999 Pakistan's military overthrew the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
10/12/2001 The United Nations and Secretary General Kofi Annan, 63, were jointly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor that Mr. Annan said he found humbling and encouraging but one that also ?“challenges us to do more and to do better, not to rest on our laurels.?” The citation from the Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway, said the Secretary and the United Nations shared the prize for working ?“for a better organized and more peaceful world?” by tackling challenges ranging from poverty to terrorism. ?“The end of the cold war has at last made it possible for the UN to perform more fully the part it was originally intended to play,?” the citation added. Mr. Annan said he thought the UN was given the award because of the need to encourage international cooperation, ?“to encourage us to really move forward and work with governments and make sure that there is true international cooperation and multilateralism.?” Mr. Annan, from Ghana, took office in 1997 and was easily elected to a 2nd term in 6/2001, months before his first 5-year term expired (See: 12/10/2001).
10/12/2001 Nearly 90% of Arab-Americans supported US President Bush's response to the 9/11/2001 attacks, but one-fifth said they had since experienced discrimination, a poll released showed. Eighty-eight percent of those surveyed by Zogby International said they supported Bush's handling of the US war on terrorism. Zogby International questioned 508 Arab-Americans from last Saturday to Monday. The US began its bombing campaign of Afghanistan on 10/7/2001, where Saudi-born terrorist leader Osama bin Laden was believed to be hiding.
10/12/2001 Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?¡vez, upon his election as President in 1998, pledged that the press could criticize his policies without fear of repercussions. But of late, Mr. Ch?¡vez, a former army paratrooper and failed coup plotter, has threatened to revoke the license of a respected television network while launching blistering critiques of the press. The attacks raised worries among press freedom advocates and Western diplomats that self-censorship could emerge in a media that was among Latin America's most independent and competitive, or even that the government might interfere in the future.
10/12/2001 According to attorney J.C. Chestnut, reparations were not for descendents of slaves, but for Black-American farmers. ?“Several poor farmers went to court on food stamps and walked out Millionaires,?” said Chestnut. In 1997, the federal government paid $375 million to hundreds of Black farmers who claimed the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) unfairly denied them loans and subsidies because of their race. ?“If a farmer had documentation and could prove that the government owed them more than $50,000 they would be given a mini-trial in Washington,?” said Chestnut. Chestnut explained the long lasting effects of the USDA?’s discrimination against Black farmers using statistical evidence. In 1910 there were 218,000 Black farmers who collectively owned 16 million acres of land. In 1992, the US Census on Agriculture reported that there were only 18,000 Black farmers left with 2.3 million acres of land. Chestnut helped spearhead a settlement in the largest civil rights class action suite in the world.
10/12/2002 Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, 78, was abiding by Constitutional limits on his term of office and ceding power in elections scheduled for 12/2002 may have been a cause for hope for Kenya's future. But Mr. Moi, a shrewd tactician when it came to running Kenya, a country of 31 million people that was considered a zone of stability in a troubled region, was leaving office on his own terms. He had chosen as his successor Uhuru Kenyatta, the 41-year-old son of the country's founding President, Jomo Kenyatta. Kenyatta plucked Mr. Moi from relative obscurity to make him Vice President 4 years after Kenya became independent of British rule in 1963. Uhuru Kenyatta had very little experience in politics. He lost his lone bid for Parliament in 1997, which was surprising given his name. Mr. Kenyatta had largely stayed mum about his vision for Kenya but aides said he had a detailed platform, one that was distinct from Mr. Moi's. Still, Mr. Moi indicated that he would be around to advise his protege. And Mr. Moi intended to hold on to power as Chairman of the ruling Kenya African National Union party, known as KANU. Political analysts in Nairobi said that would allow Mr. Moi to protect the vast wealth that he accumulated as President.
10/12/2002 For someone the Cuban government disparaged as insignificant, Oswaldo Pay?¡?¡ had been attracting a great deal of international attention. Politicians and leaders in the US and Europe praised him for leading the Varela Project, a petition drive that sought a referendum on whether there should be greater personal and political freedoms in Cuba. The Czech president, Vaclav Havel, proposed Mr. Pay?¡?¡ for the Nobel Peace Prize. The National Democratic Institute in Washington had recently bestowed its highest honor on him. In Cuba, however, Mr. Pay?¡?¡'s efforts had earned him obscene phone calls and surveillance. The government refused to permit the rights referendum, even though the petition drive collected 11,000 signatures last spring, a shade more than required by the Cuban Constitution for ballot measures. In an interview with Barbara Walters, President Fidel Castro said the project's supporters ?“will have their response in due course.?” But in recent remarks in Brussels, Deputy Foreign Minister ????ngel Dalmau dismissed Mr. Pay?¡?¡ as someone who ?“represents nobody?” in Cuba and ridiculed his lionization abroad.
10/12/2003 Thomas W. Dortch Jr., Chairman of 100 Black Men of America, was the keynote speaker at tonight's 31st annual Black Achievers in Industry Awards dinner in the Adam's Mark Hotel, Buffalo, NY. Dortch, who also was President and Chief Executive of TWD, a consulting firm, had worked to dismantle systemic barriers to empowerment. Under his guidance, 100 Black Men of America had expanded to 95 chapters in the US, Africa, England and the West Indies. Formed in 1986, 100 Black Men of America was dedicated to improving the quality of life and enhancing educational and economic opportunities for Blacks. Herbert L. Bellamy Jr., President of 1490 Enterprises, was co- Chairman of the event, along with Kathleen Williams-Tyler, co-Owner of EM Tea Coffee Cup Cafe and Bernard Mitchell, Senior Marketing and Sales Executive of WKBW-TV. Candidates were selected by their sponsors. Since 1973, more than 850 people had been honored. Thirty candidates were presented for that year.
10/12/2003 A decade after Burbank became the 1st city in CA. to initiate a restraining order against gang members, the Elmwood Avenue block they targeted was being lauded as one of the nicest neighborhoods in town. But it wasn't always so. Ten years ago, the 100 block of West Elmwood was a black eye in a city that prided itself on top-notch police and city services. Apartment buildings were scarred with bullet holes and gang graffiti. Police had received 30 calls about gunfire on that one block in 1991. Frustrated by scores of gang members congregating in the neighborhood on weekends, Burbank police Sgt. Eric Rosoff and the City Attorney?’s Office decided to act. In 10/1993, they filed for a civil injunction making it illegal for 2 or more people named in the court order to gather on Elmwood. The 1st court order against the Elmwood Avenue gang named 70 members, about 40 of whom were served with the paperwork soon after it was approved by a Burbank judge. In addition to the gang injunctions, the city bought a dozen apartment buildings on Elmwood Avenue and launched a $5 million revitalization project, now owned by the nonprofit Burbank Housing Corp. Court injunctions had become a powerful tool used by cities and police departments to quell gang activity. The city of Los Angeles had nearly 20 court orders in effect that prevented gang members from congregating in various neighborhoods.
10/13/1492 When explorers and conquerors crossed the Atlantic, they exposed Native- Americans to diseases for which they had no defenses. Experts believed that the New World was home to up to 50 million people before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. Within decades, vast populations were killed by smallpox and other lesser diseases.
10/13/1670 A Virginia law divided non-Europeans servants into 2 groups: those who came to the colony by sea (Africans) were to be slaves for life, while, those who came by land (Indians) were to be only indentured servants.
10/13/1825 John S. Rock, who will become a physician, a abolitionist, he will become the 1st Black to be received on the floor of the US House of Representatives, but on his way home he was arrested at the Washington railroad station for not having the pass Blacks were often required to carry, the incident prompted Representative Garfield, later to become President, to introduce legislation that would abolish the use of passes for Blacks and will become the 1st Black lawyer to argue before the US Supreme Court (2/1/1865), was born free in Salem, NJ (d: 12/3/1866 at age 41 at home).
10/13/1843 The Jewish organization B?’nai B?’rith was founded in New York City.
10/13/1901 Edith Spurlock Sampson, will be in 1927, she become the 1st woman to graduate from Chicago's Loyola University Law School (1927), she will be the 1st Black woman appointed a judge in Illinois, will be appointed the 1st Black woman delegate to the UN by US President Harry S. Truman (1950) and the 1st Black woman elected Judge in the US (1962), was born in Pittsburgh, PA (d. 12/8/1979 at age 78, Chicago, IL).
10/13/1915 Meharry Medical College, which trained numerous Black doctors due to their exclusion from most White schools, was founded in Nashville, TN.
10/13/1926 Jesse Leroy Brown, the 1st Black naval aviator who will receive his wings in 1948 and will be killed after completing 20 missions during the Korean War giving his life for the country that had tried to keep him from fulfilling his dream of becoming a aviator, was born in Hattiesburg, MS (d: shot down 12/4/1950 at age 24, Korea).
10/13/1944 Black US Army Private Ernest A. Jenkins was presented a Silver Star during the fierce fighting that liberated Chateaudun, France for his ?“conspicuous gallantry?” by Lieutenant General George S. Patton.
10/13/1961 Burundian Prince Rwagasore was assassinated by a European just 2 weeks after his nomination as Prime Minister and only months before independence.
10/13/1969 US Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger refused to hear Reies Lopez Tijerina?’s appeal on his conviction for the Kit Carson National Forest occupation.
10/13/1979 Dr. Clarence Muse, held a law degree from Pennsylvania's Dickerson University, appeared in over 218 films and in 1939 co-authored with Langston Hughes the script for ?“Way Down South,?” the 1st Hollywood film written by Black writers and was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame (1973), died in Perris, CA.
10/13/1981 Egyptian voters participated in a referendum to elect Vice President Hosni Mubarak the new President of Egypt after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.
10/13/1998 Scientists said the emergence of long-lived grandmothers 2 million years ago, when our ancestors were enduring severe ecological problems, played a pivotal role in our evolution. Grannies were able to forage for roots and vegetables, which were difficult to dig up when Africa?’s climate was drying up, which they would give to their daughters when they were having babies, creating a well-nourished, thriving 3rd generation. This theory of evolution emerged from studies of the Hadza hunter-gathers of Tanzania conducted by Dr. Kristen Hawkes of the U. of Utah. Grandchildren became a better invest than children, thus explaining one of the most puzzling features of human biology; the fact that we live long past our reproductive age (See: 2 million years ago).
10/13/2000 The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to 76 year old South Korean President Kim Dae Jung of, a longtime champion of democracy whose tireless push for national reconciliation led to a summit meeting between the divided Koreas in June. Praising what it called his "great moral strength," the Nobel committee's citation said he worked for "democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular.?”
10/13/2000 The Nobel Literature Prize was awarded to Gao Xingjian an absurdist whose works were banned, the Peoples Republic of China?’s 1st ever Nobel Laureate, was met with joy and scorn because after the government?’s crackdown on Tiananmen Square?’s democracy demonstrators in 1989, he renounced his Communist Party membership and became a citizen of French. Gao?’s observation: ?“Writing can be dangerous in China.
10/13/2001 Caribbean leaders accused economically powerful nations of unfairly targeting the islands as money laundering havens. The economically vital offshore banking industries of many Caribbean islands had long been considered money laundering hotspots because of their secretive banking laws. Though money laundering was occurring in large countries on a bigger scale it was only small nations that faced threat of sanctions. Grenada was one of 4 Caribbean nations on a blacklist of money laundering havens compiled by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD was created by the Group of Seven industrialized nations in 1989 but had only blacklisted countries since 2000. The OECD authorized sanctions against those countries that remained on the blacklist. Jamaica was not on the blacklist, which also listed the Caribbean nations of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis and Dominica. The Cayman Islands and the Bahamas were removed after tightening regulations and agreeing to share banking information with foreign authorities. Of the 19 jurisdictions still blacklisted, 8 were small islands including the Pacific island of Nauru, the world's smallest independent republic (See: 1/31/1968).
10/13/2002 An e-mail ?“mistakenly?” forwarded to dozens of Hispanic leaders that described the Senate's senior Democrat as ?“doddering old Bob Byrd, the senile senator from West Virginia?” and was highly critical of the Hispanic members of Congress who voted against the Iraq war resolution. The message not only criticized Byrd, who led opposition to the Iraq resolution in the Senate, it also took to task Democratic Hispanic members of the House who voted against the resolution giving the president the authority to use military force to topple Saddam Hussein. ?“If they have a defense for their actions, they should deliver it to the kids in uniform that could one day have their --- shot off to protect these ninnies!" the e-mail said. The e-mail was dated 10/10/2002 and apparently was written in Los Angeles. It was titled ?“Can You Believe This??” The e-mail was forwarded by Jennifer D. Hugo, a White House intern who sent it from her e-mail account.
10/13/2002 Shiite Muslim clerics in Lebanon and Iran reacted with rage to Jerry Falwell for calling the prophet Muhammad a terrorist and an envoy of Iran's supreme leader reportedly called for Falwell's death. Iranian cleric Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, addressing weekly Friday prayers in the northwestern city of Tabriz, said Falwell was a ?“mercenary and must be killed,?” the Farsi-language daily Abrar reported. ?“The death of that man is a religious duty, but his case should not be tied to the Christian community,?” Shabestari, a representative of Iran's top political and religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying. Falwell apologized for calling the prophet Mohammad a terrorist, saying he meant no disrespect to ?“any sincere, law abiding Muslim (See: 11/13/2002).?”
10/13/2003 Hassan Turabi, a hard-line Sudanese Islamic leader and top opposition figure, was pardoned after more than 2 years under house arrest as part of a release of political prisoners. Turabi, leader of the Popular Congress Party and 7 other political detainees were pardoned. Turabi was once a top ally of Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir and the main architect of the Islamic fundamentalist government that was set up in the 1990s. But in 1999, the 2 had a falling out; el-Bashir accused Turabi, the Speaker of Parliament, of trying to grab power and stripped him of his position. Turabi was 1st detained 2/21/2001, a day after announcing his party had signed a peace deal with the Sudan People's Liberation Army, the main rebel group fighting Sudan's government since 1983 for greater autonomy for the largely animist and Christian south. Turabi was placed under house arrest 3 months later. The release came amid a reform drive by el-Bashir, seen as an effort to bring northern opposition groups into a united front to strengthen his government in peace talks with southern rebels (See: 2/21/2001).
10/13/2003 Argentina restored full diplomatic relations with Communist-run Cuba , 2 and a half years after pulling out its Ambassador due to Cuban criticism that its then government was ?“licking the boots?” of the US. Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa, installing a new envoy in Havana, said Argentina's left-leaning President Nestor Kirchner planned to visit Cuba in 2/2004 to cement the new chapter in their ties. Bielsa made progress in discussing cash-strapped Cuba's $1.9 billion debt to Argentina dating back decades, part of which would be paid in medical treatment in Havana for poor Argentines. Ties between Argentina and Cuba sank in 2/2001 when Cuban leader Fidel Castro accused former Argentine President Fernando de la Rua of aligning Argentina with Washington in a UN vote against Cuba?’s human rights record. The page was turned with Kirchner's election this year and Castro attended his presidential inauguration in 5/03. Cuba looked to the growing number of leftist governments elected in South America, topped by the region's giant Brazil, to break out of international isolation that it blamed on the US, which had enforced trade sanctions against Castro for 4 decades. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio ?“Lula?” da Silva visited Havana last month. Argentina and Cuba had already agreed to reduced tariffs on 1,600 items, ranging from Argentina agricultural and industrial exports to Cuba and Cuban products sold to Argentina, mainly medicine and vaccines. Argentina had also agreed to back negotiations for a ?“4 plus 1" trade pact between Cuba and Mercosur, the 4-nation Southern Cone customs union, Perez Roque said.
10/13/2003 ?“Americans have stereotypes and prejudices,?” said Anthony Greenwald, a psychology professor at the U of Washington. ?“I?’m particularly interested in how these stereotypes and prejudices operate automatically or unconsciously.?” Greenwald?’s subjects were students at the U of Washington who were told they were going to play the role of a police officer. They were undergraduates from psychology courses and like our student population, they were mostly White, about two-thirds and about one-third Asian. Other groups were represented in too small numbers. The students had to point the mouse at a person popping up on the screen in front of them and decide in less than a second whether or not to shoot at this person. The people were either White or Black; some were criminals with guns, some were undercover cops and some were people holding harmless objects like cameras. ?“What we were most interested in is what happened when they were confronted by a person, White or Black, who was holding a harmless object," said Greenwald. ?“What we found was that Blacks holding harmless objects were mistakenly shot at more than Whites. The difference was about 35% of Blacks being mistakenly shot compared to only 26% of Whites.?” Greenwald also found that Whites and Asians were indistinguishable in their performance. ?“Both of these groups accidentally shot or mistakenly shot at Blacks holding harmless objects more often than Whites.?” Greenwald blamed that discrepancy on something he suspected people may do without even realizing it, form automatic stereotypes. ?“What we think we are observing is an automatic tendency to associate Blacks more with the idea of danger and weapons. We think people have these automatic stereotypes. They can influence behavior when people have to act in a hurry and produce unfortunate and tragic results.?” Greenwald thought it's especially important for real police officers to be aware of automatic stereotypes. ?“If police or others who are in situations in which they have to make lots of decisions that might be influenced by race?…if they get training to learn that they have automatic stereotypes that could interfere with the best performance in those circumstances, I think they will just be aware of that possibility and behave perhaps more thoughtfully, more slowly, take advantage of the opportunity to apply more thought to what they have to do, and I think that would be valuable.?”
10/14/1834 Henry Blair of Glen Ross, MD, received a patent for a corn planting machine and became the 1st Black-American to receive a U.S. patent .
10/14/1902 (Dr.) William Allison Davis, future leading social anthropologist and educator, who will challenged the cultural bias of standardized intelligence tests by arguing that Black-American's low scores were not the results of lower intelligence but the result of middle-class cultural bias posed in the questions, was born.
10/14/1964 Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
10/14/1976 Alice Jarcho became the 1st woman member of the New York Stock Exchange who regularly worked on the trading floor, began working on the trading floor on 10/28/1976.
10/14/1986 Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate Elie Wiesel was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
10/14/1986 Lee Yuan-tzu of the Republic of China (Taiwan) was named winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry. He was also known as the ?“conscience of Taiwan.?”
10/14/1986 Elie Wiesel, holocaust survivor and human rights advocate was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (b: 9/30/1928, Sighet, Transylvania/Romania).
10/14/1991 Burmese/Myanmarese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to achieve democracy in her homeland.
10/14/2001 In a major move for the Ancient Eight, Brown inaugurated Ruth Simmons, the former head of Smith College, a Black-American woman as its President, making her the 1st Black-American leader in the Ivy League and Brown University's 18th President. University of PA. President Judith Rodin, the 1st female President of an Ivy League school, attended and spoke at Simmons' ceremony. Pleased to be welcoming in a 3rd female Ivy leader, Rodin offered her ?“sister President?” a warm welcome. As President of Brown, Simmons replaced Gordon Gee, formerly at CU, who stepped down in 2000 to become the Chancellor at Vanderbilt.
10/14/2002 A number of Somali community members in Lewiston, ME., belonged to a faith-based group that included Muslims, Baha'i, Catholics, Protestants and more. The group organized a rally on to protest the mayor's letter. ?“We started walking,?” said Ali, ?“from the United Methodist Church to the mosque.?” The peaceful protest attracted about 250 residents who showed their solidarity with their neighbors. But the firestorm wasn't quite over. White supremacist groups like the National Alliance, the World Church of the Creator (WCOC) and the American Nationalist Union sought to take advantage of the overwhelmingly White population by stoking the coals of hatred. Soon Somalis were fighting against violence in the streets as White supremacist groups worked to organize an anti-Somali rally in Lewiston (See: 10/1/2002).
10/14/2002 Venturing outside the entertainment and fashion arenas, platinum hip-hop recording artist/entrepreneur Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Enterprises, purchased imported Scottish liquor brand Armadale Vodka. According to partners/co-owners Jay-Z (a.k.a. Shawn Carter), Damon Dash and Kareem ?“Biggs?” Burke, the 80-proof liquor brand fit into Roc-A-Fella?’s expansion plans. Already under the $300 million Roc-A-Fella umbrella was a successful record label (the Universal Records-distributed Roc-A- Fella Records); a top-selling urban clothing company (Rocawear) and a film production company (Rocafella Films), with 2 feature-length films under its belt: State Property and most recently Paid In Full. The record label pulled in $100 million annually in revenues, while the apparel line made $150 million and various projects including the film division account for $50 million of Roc-A-Fella?’s bottom line. Although Roc-A-Fella would not disclose the purchase price for the company, which for then would remain headquartered in Scotland, single bottles of Armadale Vodka generally sold for $35 and up. And according to the Gin & Vodka Assn., vodka sales were looking up.
10/14/2003 Participants in that week's conference of 1st ladies of the hemisphere began arriving in the Dominican capitol of Santo Domingo. Already in the country were the 1st lady of Honduras, Spanish-born Aguas Oca[a de Maduro, as well as the representatives of the governments of Cuba, Colombia and Mexico. Other 1st ladies, including Laura Bush of the US and Canada's Aline Chretien, were expected to arrive later that day. Sixteen 1st ladies and 8 government representatives were scheduled to take part in the event.
10/14/2003 Liberian Businessman Gyude Bryant,54, took office as the Chairman, not the President, of Liberia?’s post-war government, taking up a 2-year term meant to guide ousted warlord Charles Taylor?’s devastated country into peace. Bryant, a longtime campaigner against warlords who stayed in Liberia throughout years of fighting under Taylor, was selected by Liberia's rebels, Taylor allies and civilian leaders to lead the interim administration, formally ending Taylor's government.
10/14/2003 The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund jumped into the fight over the newly enacted Republican congressional map, claiming it did not create enough districts to represent Hispanic voters. The suit was filed suit federal court, saying the number of Hispanic districts should have increased on the new map, but instead stayed the same. At least 2 other legal challenges had been filed since the Legislature gave final approval to the new map on 10/12/03. Democrats have said it may violate federal law and would be disruptive because it moved more than 8.1 million Texans into new districts. They also said the map reduced the number of minority districts in Texas from 11 to 10. Democrats, who controlled the state's congressional delegation 17-15, wanted to keep existing districts and fought the bill's passage, staging 2 boycotts of the Texas Legislature.
10/14/2003 Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni threatened to ban circumcision to curb the spread of AIDS was drawing strong opposition from traditionalists in his country. The BBC said traditionalists said such a move would be regarded as interference in people's cultures and would be resisted strongly. Only a small minority of Ugandans practice the circumcision of boys, but it was extremely common elsewhere throughout Africa. Museveni was quoted by the government-owned New Vision newspaper as saying the cultural practice of circumcision endangered the lives of youths by spreading AIDS: ?“I do not care about losing votes ... I cannot look for votes from people who may die tomorrow after getting infected during the circumcision rituals.?”
10/14/2003 Mauritania?’s independence leader and 1st President Moktar Ould Daddah died at age 79, in Paris?’ Val de Grace hospital, following a long illness, his brother Ahmed Ould Daddah told AFP. Considered the ?“father of the nation,?” Ould Daddah became independent Mauritania?’s 1st President in 1961 and was re-elected 3 times, ruling 17 years before being ousted in a 1978 coup. Born into a family of Muslim religious leaders, Ould Daddah was raised under the strict rules of Islam, later studying and marrying in France. From his 1st political post at age 33, when he was elected Regional Councillor for the Central Region of Adrar, Ould Daddah rose quickly in Mauritanian politics, becoming Vice President of the governing Executive Council the same year and President the next. Ould Dada campaigned for a ?“yes?” vote on preserving some ties with France in a 1958 referendum, 2 years ahead of Mauritania's independence. Nine months later he was elected the 1st President of the Islamic republic of Mauritania, winning re-election every 5 years after that. He was a founding member of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU), replaced last year by the African Union (AU). Ould Daddah was also linked to the country's conflict over Western Sahara after he signed a deal dividing the mineral-rich former Spanish colony between Morocco and Mauritania in 1975. That deal backfired on Ould Daddah and in 1977, Ould Daddah's government had to call on the French military to intervene against Polisario. In 1978, the human and financial cost of the war, combined with a severe drought and a drop in world demand for iron ore, the country?’s main foreign exchange earner, sparked the military coup that forced Ould Daddah from power. Mauritanian authorities decreed 3 days of mourning and flags were lowered to half-mast as national radio and television began broadcasting Koranic verses (b: 12/25/1924, Boutilimit in the southwest of the nation).
10/15/1883, The Civil Rights Act of 1875, guaranteeing equal rights to Black-Americans in public accommodations and jury duty, was invalidated by the US Supreme Court, when the Court declared that the 14th Amendment forbids States, but not citizens, from discriminating.
10/15/1890 W.R. Pettiford founded The Alabama Penny Savings Bank with $2,000 in capital in Birmingham, AL., its officers did not draw salaries in its initial months because it was so strapped for funds, however, the bank prospered so well that during the panic of 1893, it remained open when larger White banks in Birmingham failed.
10/15/1914 Mohammed Zahir Shah, future King of Afghanistan (1933-73), who with his brothers will provide an era of stable government to his country by reasserting central government control during a period of anarchy and banditry in the late 1920s. Zahir Shah will be crowned at the age of 19, after the assassination of his father in 11/1933. For a number of years Zahir Shah will remain in the background while his uncle Shah Mahmood Khan ran the government, but he will assert his power through the constitution of 1964, which established a constitutional monarchy and prohibited royal relatives from holding public office. He will also be able to maintain Afghanistan's neutral position in international politics. In the early 1970s the country suffered drought and famine. Pashto tribes along the Pakistan border continued to press for autonomy and the political structure in the capital was unable to deal with the country's economic problems. In a bloodless coup on 7/17/1973, Zahir Shah will be deposed. The leader of the coup, Mohammad Daud Khan (the King's brother-in-law), will proclaim Afghanistan a republic with himself as its President. Zahir Shah will formally abdicate on 8/24/1973, was born in Kabul (See: 10/1/2001).
10/15/1957 The Sickle Cell Disease Research Foundation opened in Los Angeles, CA., it was the forerunner to a national association and over 50 local chapters dedicated to providing education, screening, counseling and research in the genetic disease that affects over 50,000 individuals, mostly Black-Americans.
10/15/1962 The Cuban missile crisis began as US President Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of Soviet missiles bases in Cuba.
10/15/1966 Reies Lopez Tijerina and a group of 350 supporters occupy the Camp Echo Amphitheater in Kit Carson National Forest, New Mexico. They establish the State of Pueblo de San Joaquin de Chama, claiming the land for Mexican-Americans under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo(See: 2/2/1848 and 3/10/1848).
10/15/1969 As part of a moratorium against the Vietnam War, peace demonstrators staged activities across the US, including a candlelight march around the White House.
10/15/1969 Somalian President Abdi Rashid Ali Shermarke was assassinated.
10/15/1985 Sergeant Samuel Doe won the Liberian presidential election. His tenure was marked by a surge in ethnic violence, official corruption and the use of torture.
10/15/1990 South Africa's Separate Amenities Act, which had barred Blacks from public facilities for decades, was formally scrapped.
10/15/1991 Despite sexual harassment allegations by Black-American Anita Hill, the US Senate narrowly confirmed the nomination of Black-American Republican Clarence Thomas to the US Supreme Court, 52-48.
10/15/1993 South Africans Nelson Mandela (Black) and F.W. de Klerk (White) were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end apartheid in their country (See: 12/10/1993).
10/15/1996 Willie L. Wilson, at 48, was a rare bird on the American landscape, a self-made Black millionaire and philanthropist, neither a sports hero nor a celebrity, he made his money the old-fashioned way, as a quintessential can-do American in an America that hadn?’t always been kind to his aspirations. Born in Louisiana, with only a 8th grade education, at 13 he ran away from a Florida, crop picking, work camp, washed dishes in a Miami restaurant, bounced between Chicago and New York for several years working at low wages, started at McDonald mopping floors and moved up to franchise owner, 4 stores in Chicago. After selling his stores, he entered gospel music production and in 1989 his productions started airing in major Black markets, including Chicago, New York, Detroit, Miami, San Francisco and Jackson, MS.
10/15/2001 The South African operations of US online stockbrokerage E-Trade were scheduled to have the plug pulled and see its activities cease as of 10/26/2001. Ironically, the move by E-Trade followed the release of positive earnings figures for the 3rd quarter by the E-Trade Group, whose shares traded on NASDAQ. The closure of the South African operation will come only a year after its launch. The US operator was originally going to enter the country in partnership with E-Data, but after the deal broke down it set up its own operations, planning to expand into other markets in the subcontinent.
10/15/2001 The new non-racial South African Federated Chamber of Commerce (SAFCOC) was launched at a gala evening in Sandton, north of Johannesburg and will incorporate the formerly Black National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (NAFCOC) and the mainly White South African Chamber of Business (SACOB). The unification agreement of the 2 chambers, which up to now had operated separately, allowed for a 2 year period to wind up outstanding business before a full merger, which will see Black- and White-owned businesses operate under one banner in the country.
10/15/2001 Former President Henri Konan Bedie returned to Ivory Coast for the 1st time since being ousted in a 1999 military coup that shattered the nation's long-held reputation for stability. Officials of Bedie's former ruling Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast said he was back to stay. They said Bedie decided to return after the current government of President Laurent Gbagbo promised to guarantee his safety. Party officials said the government had also promised Bedie a house, a car and security guards, all to be paid for by the state. Political reconciliation in the nation had been a key demand of the European Union and other major international donors, most of whom cut off aid to Ivory Coast after Bedie was overthrown (See: 12/26/1999).
10/15/2002 The US Supreme Court refused to settle a free-speech skirmish over the Confederate battle flag, which the federal government all but banned from national cemeteries out of worry that it was racially divisive. The court had been asked if a descendant of a Confederate soldier may fly the flag daily at a Maryland Civil War cemetery. Justices refused without comment to consider the issue. A federal judge had rejected the government's argument that the flag could provoke racial controversy or demands for counter-demonstrations, but 2 federal appeals courts backed the government policy. The Veteran's Administration flies the American flag continuously at Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery and allowed frequent private displays of some other flags, including the familiar black and white ?“POW/MIA?” flag. The Confederate flag, however, could fly only 2 days a year at cemeteries containing Confederate dead on Memorial Day and on Confederate Memorial Day, which was recognized in some Southern states. Patrick J. Griffin, a former leader of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, went to court after cemetery administrators turned down his request to fly what he described as a historically accurate Confederate battle flag. The national cemetery, near the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland, holds remains of soldiers who died at one of the largest prison camps maintained by the North during the Civil War.
10/15/2003 China put its 1st man in space, sending ?“taikonaut?” Yang Liwei, 38, on a 21-hour odyssey around the Earth 4 decades after the Soviet Union and the US pioneered manned space flight. The Long March 2F rocket lifted off into a clear blue sky over the Gobi desert at 11.30am and entered its predetermined orbit 10 minutes later. He was due to orbit the Earth 14 times and touch down in inner-Mongolia at 9.30am. A Lieutenant Colonel in the People?’s Liberation Army, Yang was the son of a teacher and an official at an agricultural firm. He was raised in Suizhong county in the northeast ?“rustbelt?” province of Liaoning. Yang was to dine on specially designed packets of shredded pork with garlic and ?“8-treasure?” rice, washed down with Chinese tea. Yang was part of a historic mission which made China the 3rd nation to successfully put a man into space. A successful mission would mark the crowning moment for a space program launched by Mao Zedong in 1958 but quickly left far behind in the Cold War ?“space race?” that saw the US put a man on the moon in 1969 (See: 10/19/2003).
10/15/2003 Some 3 dozen Blacks in the US Congress were opposed to the White House?’s request for $87 billion to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan, saying that the funds were needed in disadvantaged communities across the US. ?“This request has been made at a time when we have yet to rebuild America?’s schools and other critical infrastructure?” said Elijah Cummings (D-MD.), Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, at a press conference. Members of the group said they were troubled that the White House had failed to provide answers to questions submitted by lawmakers on the specifics of the funding request, which further consolidated their opposition to the spending measure. Meanwhile Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also announced that she opposed the emergency spending request and urged other lawmakers to reject the bill as well. Nevertheless, lawmakers in both the House and Senate were expected to approve the massive White House request to fund stabilization operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this week, with the greatest controversy centered on 20 billion dollars intended to rebuild Iraq. Several members of the Black Caucus insisted that the 20 billion dollars for Iraq's redevelopment ought to be in the form of a loan, rather than a grant. Cummings added there awas a good deal of support within the Caucus for using Iraq's oil reserves to finance its rehabilitation. ?“It has the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world, worth between $2.8 trillion and $5.5 trillion at the current world market rate,?” he said.
10/15/2003 Montserrat was asking Britain for permission to join the 14 other members of the Caribbean Community in establishing a regional appellate court and single market economy. Despite constitutional differences with Caribbean law, British officials said they supported Montserrat's effort to strengthen its role within the Caribbean Community as the region moved to create an integrated economy like the European Union (EU). The move came as British officials were urging Montserrat to become more economically self-sufficient as London reduced its yearly subsidies. Montserrat was the only non-sovereign territory in the Guyana-based Caribbean Community, also known as Caricom, and was among the original 13 members who joined together in 1974 to lobby internationally. Members aimed to establish the Caribbean single market by 2005, when countries were to lift trade barriers under the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Officials were attempting to overcome challenges including a lack of common currency and trade restrictions. Proponents said the planned Caribbean Court of Justice was essential for resolving regional trade disputes. Britain had provided regular aid since the island?’s volcano began erupting in 1995, destroying the airport and capitol, Plymouth, and driving more than half the population to flee. Today some 4,500 people lived on the island, but many were elderly or very young and only about 37% were employed.
10/15/2003 Former Senator Carol Moseley Braun's Democratic presidential campaign reported taking in barely $125,000 in the last 3 months and she was now almost $114,000 in debt. Braun had only $29,278.15 in cash on hand, according to reports filed with federal election officials. Braun said in 5/03 she would have to ?“fold my tent?” if her political comeback bid did not receive greater financial support. She raised only about $72,000 in the 1st 3 months of the year and $217,000 in the 2nd quarter. Asked how she intended to continue running in the crucial stretch leading to the 1/19/04 Iowa caucus, she threw up her hands and said with a trademark smile: ?“Magic.?” Braun, who served only one term in the Senate after her historic election in 1992, was lagging behind the top candidates in the Democratic field. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's campaign expected to report about $14.8 million in donations in the past quarter, a record for a Democratic contender. That gave Dean more than $25 million in donations this year. Reports from civil rights activist Al Sharpton of NYC were filed as of late 10/15/03. During Braun's stormy Senate tenure, a lengthy audit into her campaign finances dogged her. Although that audit ended with no finding of wrongdoing on Braun's part, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) may again be on her case, records showed. The FEC sent Braun a letter 7/30/03 demanding information about donors to her campaign before 8/29/03, a not uncommon request. But her campaign had not responded by 10/15/03, an FEC spokesman said. Failing to file a timely response could lead to an audit, the letter warned. The campaign owed its biggest debt, more than $63,000, to the Washington law firm of Ryan, Phillips, Utrecht & MacKinnon. Her spokesman, Kevin Lampe said the firm was hired to help the campaign comply with campaign-finance reporting laws.
10/15/2003 A federal lawsuit brought by Bryan Greene, 35, who alleged that he was refused taxi service because he was Black, was settled by Amritsar Auto Services Co. LLC, which operated Your Way Cab Association and Atlantic Cab Association District cab companies via an agreement that required the firm to pay for newspaper ads and post stickers pledging it will not discriminate against passengers, according to court documents. The lawsuit had been filed in US District Court by Greene, a District resident and a Director of Policy in HUD's office of Fair Housing and Equal. Greene alleged that on the night of 4/2/2000, a driver for Your Way taxi service would not pick him up at the Loew's L'Enfant Plaza Hotel, near Greene's office. The suit said the driver looked directly at Greene, ?“sized him up?” and then pulled away as a hotel doorman tapped on the taxi and told the cabby to stop. Under the terms of the unusual settlement, Amritsar Auto Services Co. LLC agreed to spend $2,000 on print ads stating that Your Way required its drivers to carry any passengers to any destinations in the District. The ads were to run in The Washington Post, the City Paper and the Afro-American. The settlement also said that for 5 years, Amritsar must display a sticker in all its taxis saying that it required its drivers to take passengers to any destination in the city ?“regardless of race, ethnicity or national origin.?” Jonathan Grossman, an attorney for Greene, said his client chose to sue in federal court rather than file a complaint with the taxicab commission because he had doubts the agency would take meaningful action. Nonetheless, after Greene encountered another taxi driver who refused to take him while he was in Georgetown on 5/05/ 2001, he registered a complaint with the commission. Grossman said that the commission had a hearing on the complaint in 7/2001 and that his client had not received any word from the agency.
10/16/1855 John Mercer Langston, one of the 1st Black-Americans to win public office, was elected clerk of Brownhelm Township, Lorain County, OH.
10/16/1859 Osborne Perry Anderson, a free man, was 1 of 5 Blacks in militant abolitionist John Brown?’s raid on Harper's Ferry, VA., today located in West Virginia. Brown?’s proposed mission was to obtain arms for a slave insurrection and awaken a divided nation.
10/16/1867 Atlanta University began as a school for freed slaves in the Jenkins Street Church and a railroad boxcar.
10/16/1872 SC Republicans carried the election with a ticket with 4 Blacks: Richard H. Gleaves, Lieutenant Governor; Henry E. Hayne, Secretary of State; Francis L. Cardozo (See: 4/14/1868 and 7/9/1868), Treasurer and Henry W. Purvis, Adjutant General and 4 Whites and 97 of the 158 seats in the General Assembly and 4 of the 5 US Congressional Districts were won by Black-Americans.
10/16/1886 David Green Ben-Gurion, future Israeli statesman, 1st Prime Minister (1948-53) and Secretary of Defense (1955-63), was born (d: 12/1/1973 at age 87).
10/16/1895 The National Medical Association was founded in Atlanta, GA., with Robert F. Boyd, MD as it 1st President (1895-97).
10/16/1901 Booker T. Washington, educator, dined at the White House with US President Theodore Roosevelt and became the 1st Black-American to do so.
10/16/1916 Margaret Sanger opened the 1st birth-control clinic in New York City.
10/16/1922 Leon Sullivan, future Black-American who will formulate social principles for economic dealing with racist South Africa, was born in Charlestown, WV.
10/16/1924 Children born of African-German descent would be eliminated, Hitler wrote in Mein Kamp, because he considered them an ?“insult?” to the German nation. ?“The mulatto children came about through rape or the white mother was a whore,?” Hitler wrote. ?“In both cases, there is not the slightest moral duty regarding these offspring of a foreign race.?” The Nazis set up a secret group, Commission Number 3, to organize the sterilization of those offspring to keep intact the purity of the Aryan race. In 1937, all local authorities in Germany were to submit a list of all the children of African descent. Then, these children were taken from their homes or schools without parental permission and put before the commission. Once a child was decided to be of Black descent, the child was taken immediately to a hospital and sterilized. About 400 children were medically sterilized, many times without their parents' knowledge.
10/16/1932 Chi Eta Phi, a nursing sorority, was founded.
10/16/1962 Eleven years after it had invaded Tibet, the Peoples Republic of China assailed Himalayan India in a surprise attack that ended a millennia of peaceful co-existence between the 2 Asian giants. As a result, approximately 43,000 square kilometers of Indian territory was still under occupation by the PRC as of 6/2003. Though an often overlooked conflict the 1962 Sino-Indian war was very significant because its historical ramifications were still strongly felt. Not only did it alter the course of the Cold War, but became the primary cause of consternation between 2 of the largest countries, economies, militaries and civilizations of the world, India and China. It was a conflict that directly involved one third of humanity (See: 4/29/1954 & 6/24 / 2003).
10/16/1964 The People?’s Republic of China exploded its first atomic bomb in the Lop Nor desert in western China.
10/16/1967 Aisijero ?“Henry?” Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China, who was crowned Emperor Hsuan Tung at age 3 (b: 1906), died of cancer at age 61(?).
10/16/1968 Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black gloved fists in the Black Power salute at the Mexico Olympics awards ceremony and were suspended from the games 2 days later.
10/16/1970 Anwar Sadat was elected President of Egypt, succeeding the late Gamal Abdel Nasser.
10/16/1973 Le Doc Tho of North Vietnam and Henry Kissinger of the US were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, however, Le Doc Tho declined the award.
10/16/1973 Maynard Jackson became the 1st Black-American Mayor of a major southern city, at the age of 35, he also became one of the youngest Mayors ever elected, when he was elected Mayor of Atlanta, GA.
10/16/1975(?) National Arab American Medical Association a non-profit, non-political, educational and charitable organization of medical professionals of Arab descent was incorporated in California and became a national organization in 1980. Twenty-three chapters of NAAMA had been established in the United States and Canada.
10/16/1981 Moshe Dayan, former Israeli soldier, General and statesman, died. (b: 5/20/1915).
10/16/1984 Desmond Tutu of South Africa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role as a unifying figure in the campaign to resolve the problems of apartheid in South Africa.
10/16/1994(?) The National Hispanic Medical Association was organized to address the interests and concerns of 26,000 licensed physicians and 1,800 full-time Hispanic medical faculty dedicated to teaching medical and health services research.
10/16/1995 A vast throng of Black men gathered in Washington, DC for the ?“Million Man March?” led by the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. The event was called ?“A Day of Atonement and Reconciliation?” whereby Black men would take charge in rebuilding their communities and show more respect for themselves and devotion to their families.
10/16/1998 Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested by British police in London for questioning about allegations that he had murdered Spanish citizens during his years in power.
10/16/2001 Leaders and representatives from some 30 African nations were in Dakar to establish an ?“African pact against terrorism.?” The 1-day summit was scheduled for 10/17/2001 and was the idea of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who wanted to ?“explore ways to help African nations combat the problem of international terrorism.?” Wade had urged African nations not to give refuge to known terrorists and to eliminate their funding channels. Most African nations had publicly condemned the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks against the US. The suspected mastermind of the attacks, Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, resided in Sudan in the 1990s and had an extensive support network on the continent.
10/16/2001 Unnamed sources in Kandahar, Afghanistan said the US was now using Air Force gunships to target Taliban leaders and soldiers. At least one missile was reported to have hit the house where Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar used to live.
Meanwhile, the Northern Alliance claimed that more than 400 Taliban soldiers had surrendered in the north where the rebels have cut off a supply line between the Taliban's northern forces and Kabul. The Alliance's Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, said the group had postponed a planned attack on Kabul. He said, ?“ that before making any move on Kabul they would like to have a political agreement on a post-Taliban administration in place.?”
10/16/2001 Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, toured city blocks in the northern city of Kano destroyed by a recent round of Muslim-Christian riots and appealed to citizens of his increasingly fractious nation not to avenge their losses with more violence. At least 18 people were killed and 40 seriously injured this weekend in violence that Obasanjo blamed on ?“mindless, thoughtless, faceless?” people who, he said, killed and looted out of hunger and greed. Demonstration on 10/12/2001 by fundamentalist Muslims protesting the US airstrikes on Afghanistan preceded the rampage. Thousands had been killed in interreligious fighting since a dozen predominantly Muslim northern states began imposing Shariah, or Islamic law, last year. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, with 120 million people, frequently suffered violent religious, ethnic and regional disputes. The 9/11/01 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and the US?’ strikes on Afghanistan appeared to have stirred up tension between Christians and Muslims.
10/16/2001 In the robust and decidedly lively field of the life sciences, at least one verity refused to die: for every dollar that a male scientist earns, a woman earns not quite 77 cents. A new survey by the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences of the salaries and comparative career happiness among researchers in biology, medicine and related disciplines offered a mix of the good and the grating.
Women employed full time as life scientists earn some $72,000 a year, 23% less than the $94,000 their male counterparts made. That disparity may in part explain why women were more likely than men to count themselves as ?“fairly?” rather than ?“highly?” happy about their jobs. Women earned less than men in nearly all the subcategories examined: university administrators, professors and instructors at every level, corporate directors and executives, managers and physicians. In only one category, principal investigator in nonacademic laboratories, did women fare surprisingly well, earning an annual median of $97,000 compared with men's $95,000. However, that category was represented in the survey by a relatively small sample size of 130 respondents, 86 men and 44 women, leaving survey analysts unsure of what to make of it.
10/16/2002 The US Supreme Court took up another death penalty issue, hearing an appeal from Thomas Miller-El, a Black man who said the overwhelmingly White jury that put him on Texas' death row was selected on the basis of race. The Constitution forbids race discrimination in jury selection. The Supreme Court in 1986 made it easier for defendants to prove that discrimination affected their cases. The court had not, however, clearly said how judges should evaluate evidence. Before his trial, prosecutors used their power to challenge specific jurors as a way to eliminate 10 out of 11 potential Black jurors. The 1 Black chosen for the jury told prosecutors he regarded execution as too painless for killers and recommended instead ?“pour some honey on them and stake them out over an ant bed.?” Blacks were generally considered less likely to impose the death penalty than Whites and were sometimes viewed as risky jurors because they may be skeptical of police, said Robert J. Cottrol, a criminal law professor at George Washington University. Waxman said a training manual that had been used in the Dallas prosecutors' office recommended keeping Black jurors off trials. The lawyer also said prosecutors questioned Black potential jurors differently than Whites in an attempt to obtain answers that would be used to keep them off the jury.
10/16/2002 For Asians in Massachusetts, the largest obstacle to political impact was also the most basic: citizenship. Only US citizens may vote, but just half the Asians of voting age in that state were citizens and 70% were foreign-born. Between 1990 and 2000, the Bay State's Asian population grew 68% to 3.7% of the overall population. That was faster than any other racial group and much of the increase was attributable to immigration. Despite their low numbers, however, Asian- Americans were establishing a political presence in the state. In 1999, Rithy Uong of Lowell became the 1st Cambodian to win a City Council seat anywhere in the US. Two years earlier, Dan Lam, another Cambodian, was elected to the Board of Selectmen in Randolph and Amy Mah Sangiolo, of Chinese and Japanese descent, was elected an Alderwoman in Newton. The late Kai Shang, a Chinese-American, served Attleboro as a City Councilor and Mayor in the late 1980s and 1990s. More than a third of the Asians in Massachusetts were Chinese or of Chinese descent, followed by significant numbers of Indians, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Koreans, Japanese, Laotians and Filipinos.
10/16/2003 Cameroonian Esther Tadzong, Treasurer and Project Manager of the Global Centre for Compliance, Hazard and Disaster Management (GLOCECOHADIM) was awarded the 2003 UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction from the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), an independent body that coordinated and promoted disaster management strategies among UN agencies. Tadzong, 1 of 33 nominees, was the 1st woman to receive the award since it was set up in 1986. According to an ISDR press release, Tadzong was instrumental in GLOCECOHADIM?’s evolution from its origins providing assistance to survivors of a serious industrial accident, into becoming an organisation offering comprehensive disaster precaution and relief services in Bamenda, northwestern Cameroon, which was frequently hit by droughts. Tadzong was also a Provincial Planning Chief for the Ministry of Education. A ceremony to honour Tadzong and 6 winners of smaller prizes was held at the ISDR?’s 2nd International Conference on Early Warning, which took place in Bonn, Germany from 1-/16-18/03. Tadzong was presented with a crystal statuette and $40,000, while Certificates of Distinction were accompanied by $3,000, and $2,000 with each Certificate of Merit. The ISDR administered the Sasakawa Award, which was funded by the Nippon Foundation, a Japan-based non-for-profit group named after its philanthropic founder, Ryoichi Sasakawa. The Nippon Foundation provided domestic social welfare and volunteer support as well as funding maritime development and overseas cooperative assistance. The money for the awards came from the annual interest accrued from a $2 million endowment fund set up by the Nippon Foundation in 1986. The Nippon Foundation also funded the World Health Organisation?’s Sasakawa Health Prize and the UN Environmental Programme?’s Sasakawa Prize.
10/17/1781 Richard Mentor Johnson was 9th Vice President of the US during the Van Buren administration (1837-41) and openly lived with Julia Chinn, a slave Johnson had inherited from his father. Chinn and Johnson were parents of 2 daughters, Adeline, born 10/13/1804 and Imogen, born 2/17/1812, whom Johnson acknowledged, educated and insisted be accepted in society. Legally, they were Black and Johnson's slave property. It was well known that the girls sat at the same table ?“with the most honorable of his white guests.?” Both girls married White men and were deeded sections of their father's land. Imogen married Daniel Pence and had 6 children. Adeline married Thomas Scott. Johnson was the 1st native-born Kentuckian to serve in the legislature and spent his life in government service. A political disciple of Andrew Jackson, Johnson was an early Democrat and a union nationalist. He was known in Congress as ?“The Poor Man's Friend.?” He opposed debtors' prisons and supported distribution of public lands. Extremely popular with the public and a hero of the War of 1812, Johnson wanted the US presidency. It was generally believed that he was denied the nomination because of his Black family, or what was politely called his ?“unconventional domestic arrangements.?” He was born in Beargrass (now Louisville), KY. (d. 11/19/1850 at age 69).
10/17/1787 Prince Hall, founder of the Free Manson African Lodge # 489, and other Black Bostonians petitioned the legislature for equal public schools. The petition was denied.
10/17/1806 Jean Jacques Dessalines, who after Toussaint?’s capture by the French , revolted and overwhelmed the invaders in 1803, independence was declared 1/1/1804, at Gona?¯ves where he was chosen Governor for Life. Later, attempting to emulate Napoleon, he had himself crowned Emperor Jacques I (1804-06) in an ostentatious ceremony. His barbaric cruelty against the mulattoes whom Toussaint was unable to control led to a bitter struggle with the mulatto leaders Andr?© Rigaud and Alexandre P?©tion. In attempting to reorganize the nation's shattered economy, the ambitious Emperor instituted drastic measures, such as forced labor, and accompanied them with despotic and cruel acts. He was subsequently assassinated at age 48(?) in a revolt at Pont-Rouge (b: c 1758, at the Cormiers Plantation north of Haiti/some say West Africa); He was remembered as the Father of the Haitian Nation. Henri Christophe succeeded him (See: 10/6/1776 and 1820).
10/17/1871 US President Ulysses S. Grant declared 9 counties in South Carolina under martial law due to Ku Klux Klan violence against Black citizens.
10/17/1888 Capitol Saving Savings Bank, the 1st Black-owned bank, opened in Washington, DC.
10/17/1917 There were 639 Black officers commissioned by the US Army who had been trained at the new all-Black facility established at Fort Des Moines. By war?’s end, the school had produced 1400 commissioned officers, many of whom commanded labor battalions, others, however, served in combat with distinction.
10/17/1935 H. Carl McCall, after graduating from college, he will become a Vice President at Citibank from 1984 - 93 and a Deputy Ambassador to the UN from 1979 - 81. McCall also had been a Commissioner of the Port Authority of NY and NJ and was Executive Vice President of WNET, a public television station in New York. In 1982, McCall unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was elected to the board of the New York Stock Exchange in 1999. He was the NY state Comptroller, a position he has held since 5/1993, when the NY State Legislature elected him to fill an unexpired term. In 1994, voters elected him to the position, making him the 1st Black elected to a statewide office in New York. He easily won re-election in 11/1998 by a margin of 1.4 million votes. As Comptroller, McCall was the chief fiscal officer of NY state, responsible for governmental and financial oversight and the manager of the state's multibillion-dollar pension fund. McCall announced in 2/2002(?) he would be a Democratic candidate for the position of New York Governor. He was born on this date in Boston, MA.
10/17/1936 Annie Oneta Plummer, who in 1992 will with $50 of her own money will buy 30 pocket dictionaries and give them away to Black children on the street. In each copy, Plummer wrote the United Negro College Fund?’s (UNCF) motto: ?“A mind is a terrible thing to waste,?” with the additional admonition, ?“I challenge you not to waste yours.?” People will hear about Plummer?¹s unusual gifts and will begin sending her money to purchase more dictionaries for more children and she will start to buy wholesale. In 1995 Plummer will set an ambitious goal: a free dictionary in the hands of the 4,000 3rd grade students in the city of Savannah along with Chatham County. By 1996 she will have given away over 17,000 copies and more than 35,000 by 1999, was born in Sylvania, GA (d: 12/23/1999, at 63, Savannah, GA.) Her daughter will continue her work.
10/17/1945 Colonel Juan Peron staged a coup and became the absolute ruler of Argentina.
10/17/1956 Mae Carol Jemison, future 1st Black-American female and Mission Specialist (1992 on the Endeavor) in space, was born in Decatur, AL. She considered Chicago her home (See: 6/6/1987 and 9/12/1992).
10/17/1961 Algerians in Paris, France staged a peaceful demonstration over a selective curfew, ended with their slaughter by France police.
10/17/1969 Clifton J. Wharton, Jr., became the President of Morgan State University and 1st Black-American to head a major White university.
10/17/1973 The Arab oil-producing member nations of The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced they would begin cutting back on oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result was a total embargo that lasted until 3/1974.
10/17/1977 In Mogadishu, Somalia, West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner that was on the ground, freeing all 86 hostages and killing 3 of the 4 hijackers.
10/17/1978 US President Jimmy Carter signed a bill restoring US citizenship to Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis.
10/17/1979 Humanitarian mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her years of work on behalf of the destitute in Calcutta, India.
10/17/1988 The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and the National Indian Gaming Commission were enacted by the US Congress.
10/17/1997 The remains of revolutionary Ernesto ?“Che?” Guevara were laid to rest in his adopted Cuba, 30 years after his execution in Bolivia.
10/17/2001 Rwanda withdrew more than 300 troops from intermediate positions in Lusambo, and Bene Dibele in Kasai Province, [DR] Congo to Kigali in preparation for their redeployment in eastern Congo to counter the advance of the ?“negative?” forces towards Rwanda, military sources said in Kigali. Those ?“negative?” forces were part of the group called Alir, the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda II, comprising Rwandan Hutu rebels and the notorious Interahamwe militiamen who crossed to Congo after carrying out the Rwandan genocide of ethnic minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994. The positions vacated by Rwandan forces will be taken over by their allies of the Rally for the Congolese Democracy (RCD), which controlled more than 45% of the huge Democratic Republic of Congo (See: 5/2001, 8/2001 and 9/2001).
10/17/2001 Corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) gave Nigeria low marks in its fight against corruption as the 2nd most corrupt country in the world, as the 8th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) opened in Abuja.
10/17/2001 More than 15 years after democratic rule replaced military dictatorship, torture remains ?“widespread and systematic?” throughout Brazil, regarded by the authorities as an accepted method of policing and unpunished by judges, according to a new report issued here by Amnesty International. ?“To many people, torture is a crime of the past,?” said Tim Cahill, an Amnesty International researcher who worked on the new report. In contrast to the middle-class White students and intellectuals who suffered in the past, ?“many of today's victims are poor or African-Brazilians and so what they undergo is not deemed torture,?” he said.
10/17/2001 Mohammad Zahir Shah, 87, the former King of Afghanistan agreed that moderate Taliban leaders should play a role in the next Kabul government. Pakistan demanded a role for those viewed as moderates in the hard-line movement to counter the weight of the Northern Alliance, whom it deeply mistrusted because of the group's support from India, Russia and Iran. The inclusion of Taliban elements in the planned administration could cause strife within the coalition that the former King was seeking to establish, but it was seen as vital to winning the support of Pakistan, a key member of the antiterror coalition led by the US. Sayed Ahmad Gailani, a leading Afghan religious figure who lived in exile in Pakistan, flew to Rome to argue the case with Zahir for linking up with moderate Taliban leaders. Mr. Gailani was also the head of a former Afghan mujahedeen party during the fight against Soviet occupation, said he hoped the former King's call to create an interim Supreme Council would soon bear fruit.
10/17/2002 Democrat Steve Benjamin was a Columbia attorney trying to succeed Charlie Condon as the state Attorney General. Benjamin, along with Democratic Secretary of State candidate Rick Wade, were trying to break South Carolina's political color line: getting elected to statewide office, a feat no Black had ever accomplished since the Reconstruction Era. Their run for history, however, was inextricably linked to the fate of the SC Democratic Party as it tried to hold on to the Governor's Mansion and other gains made 4 years ago. But neither Benjamin nor Wade had run traditionally Black Democratic races. Both have touted their fiscally conservative, socially moderate philosophy. Benjamin supported the death penalty and was a card carrying member of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Meanwhile, Wade, Director of the state Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, was a USC and Harvard educated, pro-business candidate who believed his ?“plan and candidacy transcend race.?”
10/17/2002 Uganda was increasingly an attractive investment destination for China, given the numerous business delegations that had visited this year alone. Over the past 4 days, a 7-man team of investors from All China Commercial and Industrial Federation had been in Uganda. The 2nd Secretary at the Chinese embassy in Uganda, Li Bijian said by the end of 2001, trade between Uganda and China stood at over US$ 20 million. ?“This trade is even increasing annually,?” Bijian said. Uganda's major export to China was coffee for which shops had been opened in Beijing to sell an instant version of the beverage. Various Chinese multi-national firms were engaged in huge public works projects in Uganda like the US$ 24m Nakivubo Channel Rehabilitation Project (NCRP) by China Civil Eng. and Construction Corporation (CCE&CC); the tarmacking of Nebbi-Arua highway by China Road and Rail Corporation.
10/17/2003 South Africa's financial services industry released a broad-ranging charter in Pretoria that sat out goals to get a quarter of the sector?’s Black-owned by 2010. The charter was South Africa's 2nd major empowerment blueprint in a year after the release in 3/03 of the Mining Charter, which called for 26% of mines to be Black-owned in 10 years. The latest document embodied a voluntary commitment, drawn up by the financial sector as a whole and was supported by all South Africa's banks, insurers, Black business, fund managers and brokerage units. Financial services accounts for nearly one fifth of South Africa's gross domestic product, but the sector was owned and staffed mainly by White South Africans. The charter called for financial institutions to develop Black companies and to embark on programs that developed the skills of Black people in the industry. It said by 2008 each financial institution?’s Board of Directors must be 33% Black, while 25% of executives should be Black. Financial companies would work with the government to ?“mobilise resources?” to finance its goals. Foreign-owned financial companies that participated in and were signatories of the charter were subject to its provisions, with some exemptions allowed.
10/17/2003 The ?“image seared in everyone?’s mind,?” said the Rev. Ray Hammond, was from a photograph shot outside City Hall in 1976. In it, a White man wielded an American flag like a spear, viciously attacking a Black businessman. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Herald American photo, printed around the world, forever sealed Boston?’s reputation as a city filled with hate. Hammond one of the founders of the Ten Point Coalition, thought that reputation was no longer deserved. Rather than hostile, he argued, the city was increasingly welcoming. A small group of tourism officials and prominent members of Boston?’s Black community met for brunch high above the city on the 31st floor of the Federal Reserve Bank. Spread out before them was South Boston, the one-time heart of Boston?’s anti- busing forces, and smack in its midst, the soon-to-be- completed convention center. The view, convention center executive director James Rooney admitted, was not an accident. It was intended to drive home a message: The old Boston was being renewed. Yet how much had the city changed? It was true that the overt racial hostility of the past had died down. But recent months had seen a resurgence of troubling stories with racial overtones. An ugly schism had developed between the City Council?’s White and minority members, with Black and Latino Councilors claiming the White majority was trying to silence them. In Wellesley, a teacher put a Black child on a bus heading into Boston, assuming apparently that no Blacks actually would lived in the town. Co-hosts on WEEI's morning show (then) recently compared an escaped gorilla from the zoo to a Black Metco student. The state Legislature was currently being sued for gerrymandering its districts to preserve White power at the expense of minorities. And, according to a recent study from the State U of NY, the Boston metropolitan area was still far less integrated than was the rest of the nation.
10/18/1898 In Puerto Rico before Spain formally relinquished control of the island to the US, the American flag was raised.
10/18/1899 The War of the Thousand Days (1899-1902), Civil war in Colombia between the Liberal Party and the ruling Conservative Party that began with an uprising in the north-eastern Santander region in response to government imposition of martial law throughout the nation.
10/18/1903 Felix Houphouet-Boigny, future President of the Ivory Coast (1960-93), he will help bring independence to other French-controlled African areas and on 10/18/1989(?) The Felix Houphouet-Boigny Prize for Peace Research will be created and will be awarded annually by UNESCO, was born in Yamoussoukro, near Dimbokro, Ivory Coast (d: 12/10/1993 at 90, buried: Yamoussoukro, near Dimbokro, Ivory Coast)(See: 10/18/1989).
10/18/1944 The USS Mason and her crew proved their mettle during the ?“ordeal of Convoy NY-119,?” which was plagued by fierce weather for its entire crossing, especially within sight of the English coast. The fierce weather claimed 3 tugboats, 8 car floats and 5 cargo barges during 30 days of incessant wind and waves. The Mason was ordered to escort 20 of the smaller vessels to safety, which it did successfully. Despite suffering serious structural damage when its deck split, the Mason?’s Black crew not only repaired the deck, pumped out the engine room and replaced the lost antennae but returned to aid the remainder of the convoy still floundering at sea. The destroyer escort spent 3 more days assisting another 12 ships to reach port, then continued on to France, where the Mason?’s crew salvaged barges off the continental coast. Despite the efforts of the Mason?’s White Captain and the Convoy Commander, these Black crewmen never received any commendations for their heroic actions.
10/18/1961 South Vietnamese President Diem declared a state of emergency in the country.
10/18/1966 Cyril Briggs, an early member of the Communist Party, the founder of the African Brotherhood and an advocate of armed Black self-defense, died in Los Angeles, CA.
10/18/1968 Black athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos were suspended by the US Olympic Committee, for giving the ?“Black Power?” salute as a protest during a victory ceremony in Mexico City.
10/18, 1973 Maynard Jackson was elected the 1st Black Mayor of Atlanta, GA.
10/18/1989(?) The Felix Houphouet-Boigny Prize for Peace Research, was created and awarded by UNESCO annually -- honors people, organizations and institutions which contributed significantly to the promotion, research, safeguarding or maintaining of peace. The prize included a Peace Diploma, a Gold Medal and a FF800,000 cheque. The prize, named after the former Ivory Coast President Felix Houphouet-Boigny (See: 10/18/1903), had previously been awarded to Nelson Mandela and Frederik W. De Klerk (1991); the International Law Academy in The Hague (1992); Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat (1993); King Juan Carlos of Spain and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (1994) and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and its High Commissioner Sadako Ogata (1995).
10/18/1991 Clarence Thomas, whose conservatism evoked wide-spread negative reactions, especially among Black people, was sworn in as the 2nd Black-American to sit on the US Supreme Court.
10/18/1997 A monument honoring American servicewomen, past and present, was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery.
10/18/1999 The last Tahiti cultured pearl auction of the 20th century sold a record 160,583 pearls for a record 963,641,223 French Pacific francs (F CFP), or about US $9 million, with 2 of the biggest names in the Japanese cultured pearl industry leading all other buyers. Tasaki Shinju Co. of Japan was the # 1 buyer for the 2nd year and 3rd Tahiti auction in a row and K. Mikimoto & Co., Ltd., of Japan was the # 2 buyer for the 2nd Tahiti auction in a row. A year ago, Mikimoto was the 3rd biggest buyer. The heads of both companies, Shunsaku Tasaki and Toyohiko Mikimoto, were honored on the eve of the auction by Tahiti's government, as Vice President Edouard Fritch presented each with a knighthood rank of the Tahiti Nui Order.
10/18/2001 Little more than 2 weeks after 9/11 much of the television network's taped and live coverage of the clean-up and political and economic response, networks had reverted to a disappointing norm. Invariably, the ?“heroes?” we saw were White men, while the profiles of those who died in the attacks in New York or Washington only sometimes feature stories of Blacks or Latinos who were lost. This phenomenon, call it the ?“Whitewashing of Terror,?” was not entirely unexpected when one considered that the people who collected and choose which images we will see were still predominantly White and male. As media scholar Erna Smith put it, you could watch the current coverage of the crisis aftermath and conclude that New York was pretty much a city of White people. ?“At first, CNN was just showing it all, you know, all the different kinds of people that were unfortunately in the middle of that disaster, blacks, whites, brown, the whole bit,?” she said. ?“They just put it all up there because, you know, it was breaking, it was happening and this is how New York really looks. But all of a sudden, a few days after 9/11, it seemed like Woody Allen's New York.?” Which was to say that consistent televised images of firefighters, businesspeople, victims, families of victims and other ?“heroes?” who were Black or Brown had somehow become fewer than they had been in the first days after the attack. But Smith, who specialized in content analysis studies of big stories, including a groundbreaking report for Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Press and Politics focusing on biased news coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, said that her preliminary assessment bears more work.
10/18/2001 Moving to end what one minister called the ?“silence?” around the issue, more than 40 of Rhode Island?’s leaders of faith pledged in Providence to bolster efforts to make racism a thing of the past. The ?“faith-leaders initiative,?” as it was described at a signing ceremony at the First Baptist Church in America on North Main Street, drew clergy and lay leaders from more than 3 dozen groups, including Muslims and Baha'is, Baptists and Episcopalians, Jews and Catholics, Unitarians and Congregationalists. The ?“initiative?” had been in the works months before 9/11/2001. ?“Racism contradicts and offends most fundamental beliefs and values of our faith traditions. Though we define and address holiness from different perceptions, we are one in our recognition that prejudice and discrimination should have no place among people of faith.?” Norman G. Orodenker, a senior partner with the law firm of Tillinghast, Licht & Semonoff, said he also intends to urge the Mayor to make sure that the Providence police receive hate-crimes training and drew a darker picture than the one offered by leaders of Faith. Since 9/11, he said, there have been a significant number of racial incidents in Rhode Island from verbal epithets to property crimes such as graffiti and broken windows. ?“Since Sept. 11, every nut who ever hated anyone thinks they have a license to wreak havoc,?” he said.
10/18/2001 Worried by the negative images created for African countries by the prevalence of corruption and poverty, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo called for a collective war ?“against this hydra-headed monster.?” He said in a message to the 24th Conference of the African Parliamentary Union in Abuja that the continent's under-development would persist unless member-countries decisively identified and destroyed the twin evil of corruption and poverty. ?“There is a very strong correlation between corruption and under-development in our countries," he said, citing capital flight caused by the diversion of public funds into private pockets (See: 10/17/2001).
10/18/2001 UCLA researchers investigated communities around the 100 largest industrial toxic emitters in Los Angeles County and found that while Latinos made up 44% of the population, they comprise 60% of those living near the major pollution sources. Meanwhile, 31% of the population was White, but only 18% lived near a major pollution source. And house values near the pollution sources were 20% less than the median price for the region. ?“Southern California has a persistent problem with disproportionate environmental burden on low-income people and people of color,?” said Carlos Porras, Executive Director of Communities for a Better Environment. ?“If you're poor, no matter what ethnic group you are, you get a lack of environmental justice,?” added William Burke, Chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management District Board. The report cautions against calling this a case of environmental racism. The proportion of Black-Americans living near the facilities was the same as the percentage in the county as a whole and Asian-Americans were underrepresented in areas near the pollution sources.
10/18/2001 Birmingham was Britain's 2nd city, whose population of about one million was nearly a 3rd Muslim, that predicament seemed acute. Britons of Asian descent have found themselves tugged between the pull of Islam, a religion that saw itself as a global nation of followers, and that of an adopted homeland, Britain, that seemed to some to be at war with their faith. Some said, ?“People love bin Laden because they see him as someone standing against tyranny. They compare him to Saladdin,?” the Muslim warrior who fought the Christian crusaders, ?“and they ignore his methodology.?” Most British Muslims, did not feel bound by the decrees issued by people like Mr. bin Laden urging Muslims to rise up in support of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. ?“We live under the rules of this country and we must abide by those rules.?” Of course, some British Muslims had responded differently, abandoning comfortable middle class existences in Britain to seek out training as guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan, Kashmir and elsewhere. For his part, Mr. Khan, the journalist and bookshop owner, said his faith meant that ?“I'm as loyal to this country as anybody. But I wouldn't join the army to fight Muslims.?” Still, at the same time, he said, Mr. bin Laden's ?“words resonate across the Muslim world.?”
10/18/2002 Prime Minister Percival J. Patterson asked Jamaicans to set aside political differences after his party's record 4th straight election win and pledged a vigorous fight against violent crime that had tarnished the Caribbean nation's image and economy. Former president Jimmy Carter said the election, which saw Patterson's People's National Party win 35 of 60 seats in Parliament according to unofficial results, was generally fair, despite some polling station problems and instances in which voters cast multiple ballots. Patterson, speaking at a news conference in Kingston, said he had run in his last election, confirming statements during the campaign that he would step down during the coming term. He said he would be sworn into office on 10/23/2002 and would announce his cabinet after that.
10/18/2002 Charles Stewart Founder and Chairman of the Arkansas Black Hall wanted to induct former president William ?“Bill?” Jefferson Clinton into the of Fame as an honorary member (That's right, we said the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.) Stewart wanted to recognize Clinton for putting Blacks in high places in state and federal government and for his work fighting AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. Clinton was the 1st non-Black to be recognized since the Hall was created 10 years ago and he was expected to appear at the induction ceremony. ?“Most members of the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame have been personal friends or heroes of mine. To be included in their numbers, after a lifetime of working for equal rights and greater opportunity, is a wonderful gift,?” Clinton told AP. It's no secret that Clinton had a lot of support from Blacks, both in and out of office. But was the Black Hall of Fame the place where he should have been honored, alongside inductees such as Maya Angelou and Al Green?
10/18/2002 A handful of the remaining members from the original Black Panther Party, in an effort to preserve their legacy, retained a trademark lawyer to stop the use of their name by the New Black Panther Party. Bobby Seale, David Hilliard, Elaine Brown and Huey P. Newton?’s widow, Fredrika, claimed that the New Black Panther Party tarnished their controversial legacy. They condemned the new group as a racist and anti-semetic nuisance. ?“They have hijacked our name and are hijacking our history,'' Seale told reporters. ?“We have to claim it back.?” While the original Black Panther Party had a controversial and extremist past, it also was involved in community service campaigns. The party served 200,000 hot breakfasts daily for schoolchildren, provided 1 million tests for sickle-cell anemia and printed weekly newspapers with a 200,000 circulation. It was unclear what community service activities the New Black Panther Party engaged in. Hilliard said ?“I get letters all the time threatening me and Mrs. Newton because they confuse us with them. We weren't racists. We were in coalition with people of all colors. People died and went to prison and are in exile for this history.?” The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization, included the New Black Panther Party along with the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis in its annual list of hate groups in the US (See 7/1998).
10/18/2003 Days after deadly riots over a gas export plan forced Bolivia's President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to flee to the US, his successor and new President, Carlos Mesa, swore in a new cabinet, largely fulfilling a promise to name Ministers independent of the political establishment. Although some of the new Ministers once were politicians with the leftist party called Free Bolivia Movement, most of the 15 were economists and intellectuals. President Mesa, also created a new Ministry, called Ethnic Affairs, to address the problems facing Bolivia?’s majority indigenous population. Mesa took office Friday night after deadly street protests forced former President Lozada to flee.
10/18/2003 The 1st Black elected Governor in the US, Lawrence Douglas Wilder, will speak on the upcoming presidential election and the importance of voting at the 41st annual NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet. ?“Let America Speak: Our Vote as Our Voices,?” was the speech Wilder will present 11/8/03 at the Par-A-Dice Hotel. Wilder, a Democrat, became Virginia's 65th Governor in 1990. Since leaving the VA. Governor's mansion, Wilder had kept busy. He wrote a newspaper column, lectured to audiences nationwide and was a distinguished professor at Virginia Commonwealth U. In addition to serving 4 years as Governor, Wilder served 5 terms as a VA. state Senator and one term as Lieutenant Governor. In 1992, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. An attorney by trade, Wilder established the law firm Wilder, Gregory and Associates, one of the few minority-owned businesses in VA. Attorney Don Jackson, President of Peoria's NAACP chapter, said Wilder was a logical choice for that year's keynote speaker because of his extensive political career and his national political experience.
10/19/1865 Union General O.O. Howard of the Freedmen?’s Bureau informed freedpeople in SC that the federal government planned to return land taken from southerners in rebellion back to the planters. The action dashed the promise of ?“40 acres and a mule?” for each freedman, which may have guaranteed Black economic security in a hostile White environment.
10/19/1865 The National Equal Rights League met in Cleveland, OH for the 1st time.
10/19/1870 The 1st Black-Americans elected to the US House of Representatives were Republicans who won 3 of the 4 Congressional seats in SC: Joseph H. Rainey, Robert C. Delarge and Robert B. Elliott. Rainey was elected to an unexpired term in the Forty-first Congress and was the 1st Black-American seated in the House (See: 4/14/1868, 7/9/1868 and 10/16/1872).
10/19/1936 Johnetta Betsch Cole, future anthropologist and 1st Black woman President of Spelman College (1987-97), America?’s oldest college for Black women, was born in Jacksonville, FL.
10/19/1944 Black women would be allowed into the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) was announced by the US Navy.
10/19/1945 Patricia Ireland, future President of the National Organization for Women (NOW), was born.
10/19/1950 The North Korean capitol city of Pyongyang was breached and entered by UN forces.
10/19/1960 An embargo on exports to Cuba covering all commodities except medical supplies and certain food products was imposed by the US.
10/19/1983 Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was assassinated after refusing to share leadership of the New Jewel Movement with his deputy, Bernard Coard, this event will indirectly lead to the invasion of Grenada by the US and 6 Caribbean nations.
10/19/1983 A US Senate bill, by a vote of 72-22, designated the 3rd Monday in January as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
10/19/1986 Samora Machel, joined the Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo) in 1962, led its guerrilla forces before becoming the organisation's President in 1969, in 1975 Frelimo gained power in an independent Mozambique without elections and Machel became its 1st President. Machel was killed/assassinated with 33 other people when their plane crashed in the Lebombo mountains, South Africa, and 10 people survived. He was 53(?) (b: ?/?/1933).
10/19/1988 South African anti-apartheid leader, Sisulu won a $100,000 Human Rights prize.
10/19/1993 The Black Coaches?’ Association boycotted the National Association of Basketball Coaches because of the reduction in scholarships for Blacks.
10/19/2001 Chinese President Jiang Zemin and US President George Bush met for the 1st time and emerged with Mr. Bush declaring that China had agreed to ?“cooperate with intelligence matters and interdict the financing?” of major terrorist groups. Mr. Bush came seeking China's approval, or at least acquiescence, for his war on terrorism and he received much of what he sought. At the news conference, Mr. Jiang said, ?“I've made clear we are opposed to terrorism in all forms.?” The military strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan work to China's advantage. China shared a short border with Afghanistan and Muslim Uighur separatists in that region had been a continuing problem for Mr. Jiang. Under the banner of fighting terrorism, he hoped to win implicit endorsement for Beijing's continuing efforts to beat back any moves toward independence in Xinjiang.
10/19/2001 Taiwan lost a political battle with rival China and decided to boycott a summit of Asian and Pacific leaders this in Shanghai. The move ended more than a week of wrangling between China and Taiwan about the island's decision to have a presidential adviser, Li Yuan-zu, represent the island at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. China objected to the choice, insisting that Taiwan stick with long-standing practice and send a representative with experience in economic, not political, affairs. Both sides joined APEC in 1991, but China had successfully blocked Taiwanese Presidents from going to the group's annual forums, attended by the top politicians from all other members.
10/19/2002 Sudan had a lot to offer the world's vacationers: whirling dervish dancing, a thriving music industry, a camel market and Red Sea diving. Khartoum, its capital, lay at the dreamy confluence of the Blue and White Nile. Even in the scorching heat of midday, it could be enchanting. Sudan's national museum had archaeological finds such as tombs and sections of pyramids that predated Egyptian civilization. Visitors could touch 15-foot exhumed statues of Kings from 5000 B.C., all housed in a building that was accessible to the disabled. Its radical Islamic government, which portrayed itself in the 1990s as a champion of worldwide militant Islam, was widely accused of repression and branded by the US as a sponsor of terrorism. Still, Sudanese government officials were striving to remake the country's image to increase tourism and draw attention to the nation's rich and fascinating culture.
10/19/2003 Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, 38, the fighter pilot who made China?’s 1st trip into space last week had been promoted, the official Xinhua News Agency said amid efforts by the communist government to make him a national hero. Yang's promotion to full colonel was approved several weeks ago, but his superiors did not tell him until after he returned from his 21 1/2-hour space flight, Xinhua said. Yang's identity was not disclosed by the secretive, military-linked space program until after his Shenzhou 5 capsule blasted off from a base in China's desert northwest. But since then, he had been the subject of intense publicity by the communist government's propaganda machine, which lauded him on television and in newspapers as a symbol of the successes of China?’s military and ruling party. Yang ?“became an instant hero in China?” following his flight, Xinhua said (See: 10/15/2003).
10/19/2003 The Djibouti Ambassador, Mr Ismael Goulal pulled out of the Igad Technical Committee negotiating peace for Somalia, accusing Kenya and Ethiopia of high-handedness and that member states had failed to adhere to the objectives of the peace process. He cited lack of neutrality on the part of the Inter- Governmental Authority on Development team which was overseeing the process, as the main reason behind the move. The talks, mediated by Kenya's Mr Bethuel Kiplagat, sidelined some key personalities, Djibouti claimed. The country, at the same time, said it would not recognise a Somali government that would result from the talks. Mr Goulal said Kenya was playing a 1-man show in the process and creating more tension among Somali citizens. Although Djibouti had raised its concerns over the trends in the discussions going on at Mbagathi in Nairobi, Kenya had failed to address problem, he said. He added: ?“Ambassador Kiplagat decided to hold a plenary session one morning, while he was aware that the Khartoum delegates were arriving in the afternoon, thus edging them out of the day's business.?” While the international community responded to Djibouti's concerns by telling it to remain in Nairobi, Kenya remained mum. He said the international community would not make things work out when the host and coordinator were not willing to have things changed. He said Djibouti had been sensitising the international community and Somalia itself on the dangers they were heading for. There were further divisions and mistrust between Somalis and the Igad Committee, he said. The talks had taken a year since they started in Kenya. They drew delegates from several factions, led by warlords and with observers from various diplomatic missions. The draft federal charter signed in 7/03 had divided delegates into 2, with some threatening to pull out.
10/19/2003 An assemblage of politically active Arab- Americans gave former VT. Gov. Howard Dean repeated ovations at the windup of a 2-day meeting that marked a clear shift of allegiance from President Bush to his Democratic rivals. Dean got by far the warmest response of any of the 7 presidential hopefuls who addressed the 300 people attending the national leadership conference of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington-based advocacy group. But every Democratic speaker was applauded for criticizing the administration's policies in the Middle East and especially for the anti-terrorism tactics of Attorney General John Ashcroft. George Salem, Chairman of the AAI Board and an active Republican, acknowledged in his remarks that ?“there is a war going on?” within the GOP and the administration, and that Arab-Americans ?“and other moderates?” had an uphill struggle with conservatives who supported the anti-terrorism Patriot Act and aligned the US government with the policies of the Israeli government. The apparent shift of sentiment in the Arab-American community could be of political significance. Polling by John Zogby, brother of the AAI President, indicated that in 2000, Bush enjoyed an 8% point lead over Al Gore among these voters. Numbering 500,000 to 1 million, they were concentrated in such battleground states as Michigan, Ohio and New Jersey. Bush had been in Dearborn, the largest community of Arab-Americans, twice in the last 20 months, but opposition to his policies had grown (See: 10/22/2003).
10/20/1898 North Carolina Mutual Life and Provident Association was organized by 7 Black-Americans: John Merrick, Dr. Aaron M. Moore, P.W. Dawkins, D.T. Watson, W.G. Pearson, E.A. Johnson, and James E. Shepard, each invested $50 in the company, which will grow to become North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and will have over $211 million in assets and over $8 billion of insurance in force by 1991.
10/20/1924 Rube Foster organized the "First Colored World Series" of baseball which was held in Kansas City, MO. and pitted the Kansas City Monarchs against the Hillsdale team from Darby, PA, was won by the Monarchs, 5 games to 4.
10/20/1942 At least 4 Blacks captained US Merchant Marine ?“liberty ships?” during WW II. The best known was Hugh Mulzac, who was the 1st Black captain of an American Merchant Marine ship. Although he was the 1st Black sailor to earn a shipmaster?’s license (1920), this was his 1st position of command because racism had denied him earlier opportunities to serve as a Captain. The ship made 22 round-trip voyages in the 5 years (1942-47) it was in operation and carried 18,000 troops to the European and Pacific theaters. Seventeen (17) of the approximately 2,700 Liberty Ships, were named for outstanding Blacks. The 1st ship, in honor of Booker T. Washington, was christened by Marian Anderson. The US Merchant Marine, also applied a nondiscrimination policy at a time other services were segregated.. Liberty Ships Named in Honor of Black-Americans were and would become: Robert S. Abbott, Robert J. Banks, George Washington Carver, William Cox, Frederick Douglass, Paul Laurence Dunbar, John Hope, James Weldon Johnson, George A. Lawson, John Merrick, John H. Murphy, Edward A. Savoy, Harriett Tubman, Robert L. Vann, James K. Walker, Booker T. Washington and Bert Williams
10/20/1953 Jomo Kenyetta and 5 other Mau Mau leaders were refused an appeal of their prison terms in British East Africa (Kenya) and they and their Mau Mau guerilla troops took an oath to commit themselves to expelling all White settlers in Kenya and to eliminate the Africans who cooperated with or benefitted from colonial rule.
10/20/1962 War between China and India erupted over disputed border claims in and around Tibet.
10/20/1963 The trial of Nelson Mandela and 8 others on charges of conspiracy began in South Africa.
10/20/1967 Seven White men were convicted in Meridian, Miss., of violating the civil rights of James E. Chaney, Michael H. Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, 3 murdered civil rights workers, in 1964.
10/20/2001 Tension had risen in northern Liberia, particularly in Lofa County, where government forces were battling dissident groups, according to President Charles Taylor, and that about 300,000 people had been displaced in the hostilities. Fighting continued in the Kolahun and Vahun areas, where government forces were facing well-equipped rebels, he mentioned. The 2 towns were situated on borders, making it possible for the rebels to retreat to other territories and return at any time to attack. Taylor, however, promised the Liberian people that his government would do everything possible to chase the dissidents out of Liberian territory. It was hard, very hard being under UN and OAU embargos while facing heavily armed rebels. President Taylor congratulated the Presidents of Sierra Leone and Guinea for their commitment towards restoring peace in the Mano River basin (See: 4/4/2001 and 5/4/2001).
10/20/2001 Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi announced his retirement after being in power for the last 23 years. Moi broke the news while addressing a gathering at the Kenyatta Day celebrations at Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi. Kenya's Sunday Nation newspaper quoted Moi as saying, ?“The debate concerning my retirement is taking too much time and energy. Yes, when the time comes, it will be my duty to hand over my national responsibilities to a young Kenyan leadership.?” Moi reportedly said, for the 1st time ever in Kenya's history, a younger generation of Kenyans was poised to take over the management of the country's affairs from the older one. The paper said previously, such references had been made in Moi's off-the-cuff remarks and had not been as detailed as his current statement.
10/20/2002 Comments made by activist Harry Belafonte, 75, prompted debates among segments of the Black community, with some saying Belafonte's slave reference, went too far and that he should apologize to US Secretary of State Colin Powell. In the radio interview, Belafonte said slaves were allowed the privilege of living in the house if they served their master. ?“When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture,?” Belafonte said. In as ?“Larry King Live?” interview, Powell said he didn't mind Belafonte attacking his politics, ?“but to use a slave reference, I think, is unfortunate and is a throwback to another time and another place that I wish Harry had thought twice about using.?” On ?“Fox News Sunday,?” Powell said while Belafonte had the right to attack his politics, his choice of words were not appropriate. He then said, ?“I'm serving my nation. I'm serving this president, my president, our president. I'm very happy to do so.?” Rice, speaking on CNN's ?“Late Edition,?” said: ?“Everybody should be able to debate views, but I don't need Harry Belafonte to tell me what it means to be Black.?” Earl Ofari Hutchinson, an author and political analyst, said Belafonte's remarks illustrated how Blacks who weren't ?“pro-civil rights, pro-Democratic party, pro-liberalism?” were called names such as ?“Uncle Tom, Aunt Jemima, house slave, instead of dealing with the legitimate political differences someone may have.?” Belafonte said he used the reference because ?“we're still living out the slave code?” in poor minority neighborhoods. He also said many domestic issues were unattended (See: 10/8/2002).
10/20/2003 A North Wales Police officer was secretly filmed while training in Warrington, Cheshire was suspended. He was caught allegedly making racist remarks by BBC journalist Mark Daly, 28, an undercover TV reporter. Daly posed as a trainee when a rookie cop was seen making a Ku Klux Klan-style hood and threatening an Asian recruit by saying: ?“He'll regret the day he was ever born a Paki.?” The cop also allegedly said Black race-hate murder victim Stephen Lawrence ?“deserved to die.?” Police were investigating the claims. But Home Secretary David Blunkett blasted the BBC for its ?“deception?” in making The Secret Policeman (See: 10/22/ 2003).
10/20/2003 African women had a 1 in 16 chance of dying during childbirth, a rate 175 times greater than that in the West, the UN said. Most maternal deaths and disability resulted from delays in recognizing complications, reaching a medical facility or receiving quality care, said the study by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Children's Fund and the Population Fund. A new method showed that 95% of the 529,000 maternal deaths in 2000 occurred in Africa and Asia. In 2000, the most recent year for which statistics were available, the death rate per 100,000 live births ranged from 20 women in developed countries to 920 women in sub-Saharan Africa, the agencies said. The rate in south central Asia was 520 and in southeastern Asia 210. The rate in Oceania was 240 and in Latin America and the Caribbean 190.
10/20/2003 With an increasing number of Black and Native American parents in jail or strung out on drugs, more and more children were calling their grandmothers mama. About 52% of Black grandparents and 56% of Indian grandparents said they were the main caregivers for their grandchildren, according to a new Census Bureau report. Forty-three percent of White grandparents, 35% of Hispanic grandparents and 20% Asian grandparents reported being the primary caregiver. The grandparents, according to Census, typically were between 40 and 59 years of age and often found themselves juggling parenting and work. They were also likely to need help themselves, considering that 19% lived in poverty. In contrast, 14% of other families with children were impoverished, Census said. A bill approved that week by a Senate panel would help care-giving grandparents pay for housing. A 2nd bill would allow states to use federal funds to aid grandparents and other relatives who served as guardians.
10/20/2003 Leaders from the 21 economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum began 2-day talks in the Thai capitol, Bangkok, that would feature efforts to restore global trade negotiations, Kyodo (Asian members: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, China, The People?’s Republic of , China, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan, The Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Non-Asian members: Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru and the USA). The APEC leaders were expected to take up issues surrounding the WTO?’s Doha Development Agenda in their 1st informal session scheduled to last about 70 minutes. The leaders would reaffirm the primacy of the multilateral trading system and press for an ambitious and balanced outcome to the Doha agenda, reiterating that the development dimension was at its core, according to a draft of the leaders' declaration to be issued at the summit. Since APEC members together accounted for nearly half of the world trade volume, any statement or position emerging from the APEC forum was bound to influence the global trade body. To offer the leaders more opportunity to interact with each other than in previous APEC summits, host Thailand did not follow the traditional protocol on seating arrangements. Instead of being seated by alphabetical order, each leader would sit next to different leaders at each of the 4 events during the Bangkok summit, according to the host.
10/20/2003 The African Union (AU) urged its members to speed up the ratification of a security protocol that would allow the body to intervene militarily in national conflicts, an official said. At the weekend, Senegal became the 19th state in the 53-member AU to sign up to the planned Peace and Security Council. Eight more countries were needed to ink the deal before the protocol went into force. Establishing the Peace and Security Council was seen as a crucial step towards boosting the relevance of the AU, the successor of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), in tackling wars hampering economic growth across Africa. The protocol was adopted by the AU in 7/2002 at a summit in Durban, where the AU replaced the OAU. It required a simple majority of 27 countries to sign before it went into force.
10/20/2003 Five of the 15 Nigerian engineers and scientists involved in the Nigerian satellite programme were then currently in South Africa receiving training at the CSIR Satellite Applications Centre (SAC). At the end of 9/2003, the 1st wholly owned Nigerian satellite was launched successfully into a low earth orbit on a Russian Kosmos-3M rocket that lifted off from Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Mission control and ground station monitoring will be based in Abuja. With the launch of NigerSat 1, Nigeria was the 3rd African nation, after South Africa and Algeria, to launch a satellite into space. The Nigerian government, through its Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, regarded the NigerSat 1 project as an opportunity to jump-start a beneficial space programme for Nigeria. ?“It is a technology that enables us to understand our land, air and water resources and problems associated with these. It also deals with meteorological factors, the study of atmospheric and weather sciences, using satellite data to facilitate the effective management of our environment,?” said Dr Borrofice, Director-General of the Nigerian National Space Research and Development Agency. ?“This training initiative represents a major success in business development in expanding SAC offerings into the African market. Moreover, it presents a significant step forward regarding the bilateral agreement between Nigeria and South Africa and also within the context of NEPAD,?” commented Alex Fortescue, business development manager at SAC.
10/20/2003 Mahathir Mohamad Malaysia's pugnacious Prime Minister was encountered by US president Bush at the opening of the Asian summit meeting and told by him out of the earshot of the other 19 leaders that Mr. Mahathir had been ?“wrong and divisive?” when he declared last week that Jews ran the world by proxy. Then Mr. Bush, who usually jealously guarded his private conversations with other world leaders, sent a spokesman out to recount the encounter for reporters, replete with Mr. Bush's declaration to the nearly retired Malaysian leader that the theme of Mr. Mahathir's remarks ?“stands squarely against what I believe in.?” For 4 days after Mr. Mahathir spun out his strange theory of why Jews had survived extinction and then gone on to succeed at the expense of Muslims, Mr. Bush was silent on the matter, even as other countries condemned the Prime Minister?’s speech as offensive and anti-Semitic. Mr. Mahathir was retiring in a few months, and it seemed that the White House had decided not to pick an open fight with a prickly leader whom Mr. Bush praised in the Oval Office last year as a strong ally in the campaign against terror. In fact, last year Mr. Bush allowed Mr. Mahathir to use his cooperation in tracking down terrorists to rehabilitate his image in the US. A year ago, Malaysia was often cited by administration officials as an exemplary moderate Islam nation, even if it was run by a man who once blamed the 1997 Asian financial crisis on the Jews and often claimed that Western-style democracy would be a disaster in the developing world. Mr. Bush began to sour on him earlier that year, when he declared that invading Iraq would be a racist attack on a Muslim state. Mr. Mahathir clearly knew that his comments last week would gain considerable circulation: there were cameras in the room, recording his farewell speech to the group. It included these words: ?“The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.?” He seemed at points to be saying that Muslims should learn from the success of the Jewish people. But later he added that ?“1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews.?”
10/21/1916 Anthony P. Crawford, 51, hauled a wagon-load of his cotton to Abbeville, SC. In town Crawford refused the price offered him for his cottonseed in the mercantile store of W.D. Barksdale. Crawford was backed out the store by 3 Whites clerks and was arrested by the sheriff for ?“cursing a White man.?” A mob of about 50 Whites were given the keys to his cell by a deputy and at sundown Crawford was hanged from a Southern pine. No one was ever tried for the killing. In its aftermath, hundreds of Blacks, including some of the Crawfords, fled Abbeville.
10/21/1949 Benjamin Netanyahu, future soldier and officer who will serve in an elite antiterror unit in the Israel Defense Forces (196772), in 1988 he will be elected to the 12th Knesset as a Likud member and was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister, who on 5/29/1996 will be elected as Israel's 9th Prime Minister and who will be sworn into the post on 6/18/1996, following Knesset approval Israeli Prime Minister, was born in TelAviv
10/21/1950 Ronald E. McNair, future PhD, Black astronaut and who will become the 1st Black- American astronaut to perish during a mission (Challenger - STS 41B, 51L disaster), was born in Lake City, SC.
10/21/1960 Reza Pahlavi, future possible heir to the Peacock Throne of Iran had arrived, an infant destined by birth to rule over the Persian monarchy and assume the historical titles that went with the job: the Sovereign, the Pivot of the Universe, the Sultan, the King of Kings, the Royal Possessor of Kingdoms, the Shadow of Allah, an event that made front-page news around the world, long before a revolution in the name of religion overthrew the monarchy in 1979, sending Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlavi (his father) and his wife, Farah Diba, into exile and depriving their son of his birthright, was born in Tehran.
10/21/1967 Tens of thousands of Vietnam War protestors marched in Washington, DC.
10/21/1969 A bloodless coup occurred in Somalia (National Day).
10/21/1972 The 1st Chicano Congress for Land and Cultural Reform is convened by Reies Tijerina. When the delegates vote to join La Raza (The United People), Tijerina walks out in protest.
10/21/1977 The US recalled Ambassador to South Africa, William Bowdler, due to the country's apartheid policies.
10/21/1980 Valerie Thomas invented the illusion transmitter.
10/21/1988 Former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his wife Imelda are indicted on charges of fraud and racketeering by a federal grand jury in New York. Marcos died before he could be brought to trial; his widow, Imelda, was acquitted in 1990.
10/21/1989 Bertram M. Lee and Peter C.B. Bynoe signed an agreement to purchase the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets for $54 million becoming the 1st Black-American owners of a professional basketball team.
10/21/1994 Dexter Scott King, the youngest son of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King, is named Chief Executive and Chairman of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, GA.
10/21/2001 The doorman at a Madrid, Spain discotheque barred a Black man from entering without knowing that he was a Director in Charge of Immigration with the regional government. Boladji Omer Bertin Oke, 36, a Benin national had been appointed Director for Immigration with the Basque government, attempted to enter a Bilbao discotheque with a White friend. The doorman let everyone else in for free, but insisted that the Black man must pay. Oke reported the doorman to police for his racist behaviour. The man was dumbfounded to discover that the African he had taken for an ordinary immigrant was in charge of immigration policy. Oke was to take office on Tuesday, 10/23/2001.
10/21/2001 In certain areas of Pakistan, particularly in the Northwest Frontier Province, which abuts Afghanistan, many girls and young women spend much of their time in one of the more than 100 religious schools, or madrassahs, for women. (There were about 10,000 madrassahs for boys and men throughout Pakistan.) There they were steeped in Islamic fundamentalism, reading and reciting the Koran many hours a day and learning Arabic grammar and pronunciation. At madrassahs, like Jamia Khadijatul-Kubra-Lil-Binat, immersion was complete; students, who tended to come from poor or lower-middle-class families, were boarded during the week and left only on weekends to visit their homes. These madrassahs instilled a religious ideology that was at the heart of the jihad being waged against the US. Girls as young as 5 and women as old as 65 attended madrassah. But generally, when a student turned 15 or 16, she was wed in an arranged marriage and left school to start having babies. She sent almost all her time inside the home taking care of her children, praying and reading the Koran. If she left the house, she must do so fully covered. By contrast, in some of the larger cities in Pakistan, like Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, many women worked, went to the movies, eat at McDonald's, wore pants and otherwise lived a modern, Western-influenced life.
10/21/2002 Despite an announced withdrawal of foreign troops, the plunder of the Democratic Republic of Congo's gems and minerals continued unabated among criminal groups linked to the militaries of Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, aided by Congolese officials through networks called ?“elite networks?” while running a self-financing war centered on pillaging, a UN-appointed panel reported. The researchers called on the UN to impose financial restrictions on 29 companies and 54 individuals involved in the pillaging. Most were located in Africa but the list included 4 Belgian diamond firms and the Belgian Groupe George Forrest mining operation, which was in a partnership with the Cleveland, Ohio, based OM Group. The report also named 85 multinationals in South Africa, Europe and the US that it said had violated ethical guidelines on transparency and human rights abusers set down by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. These included the world's largest gem and mining firms, such as Anglo American PLC, Barclays Bank, Bayer A.G., De Beers diamond company, the Cabot Corp. among others. Among the resources in the DRC were gold, diamonds, niobium, cassiterite, medicinal barks, cobalt, copper and coltan, a mixture of columbite and tantalite used in light bulb filaments and nuclear reactor parts.
10/21/2003 Sad Husain, 43, a Black police constable had entered the racism row with a stark warning to non-Whites: ?“Don't join the police.?” Husain claimed (the) Merseyside Police had failed in its promise to clamp-down on racism and bullying of ethnic minorities in uniform. His allegations came 4 years after Chief Constable Norman Bettison admitted his force was guilty of ?“institutionalised racism?” and promised to end it. But PC Husain siad the pledge had been little more than ?“lip service?” since Merseyside recruited Black officers but failed to retain them because of the bias they encountered. It also came after (the) shocking details of racist activity were uncovered by a BBC TV reporter in Greater Manchester Police when he enlisted for training. The issue was to be the focus of a protest march to Downing Street on 11/17/03, organised by the National Black Police Association. Merseyside Police denied the charges and said only one ethnic minority officer had left the force in the past two-and-a-half years. It also pointed to its success in recruit Black and Asian officers.
10/21/2003 Leaders representing various factions at the Somali peace conference in Kenya condemned a decision by Djibouti to pull out of a regional mediation team for the talks. Djibouti criticised regional mediation efforts in a move diplomats said was linked to a deepening rift between non-Arab Ethiopia and Arab states like Egypt and Djibouti that were wary of Ethiopian influence in Somalia. Djibouti was a member of the Arab league. Somalia's transitional government was formed in Djibouti in 2000, but its 3-year mandate expired in 8/03. The leader of the defunct government, Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, walked out of the conference in 9/03 with certain key warlords. The year-long talks had yielded an agreement between some of Somalia?’s warring parties on a new transitional Constitution, but the withdrawal of key faction leaders had dampened hopes they would form a broad-based government for Somalia, which collapsed into anarchy 12 years ago.
10/21/2003 Alice Hoppes,64, Director of the NM Office of African-American Affairs, known as a courageous leader, a fearless spokeswoman against racial injustice and ?“one of the pillars in this community,?” died. Hoppes, was a longtime Albuquerque civil rights activist, died of complications from cancer. NM Gov. Bill Richardson ordered that flags throughout the state be flown at half-staff in her honor. Hoppes was President of the local NAACP for 12 years. More recently, she was serving as President of the Albuquerque section of the National Council of Negro Women and was Regional Vice Chair of the Democratic Party, he said. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez said Hoppes touched countless lives. NM used to call itself a tri-cultural state, with Anglos, Hispanics and Indians, but things changed when Hoppes came along to point out it's a multi-cultural state that included Blacks, Chavez said. Hoppes played a key role in creating the African-American Pavilion at the State Fair. She also worked to establish a Martin Luther King state holiday. Born Alice Faye Kent in Tucumcari, NM, she was the only Black student in her school classes. Survivors included her husband of 35 years, Willard Hoppes, of Albuquerque; children, Lynda Hoppes of Albuquerque, LaDonna Hall- Gamble of Leesburg, VA., Toia Morgan of Fairmont, WVA. and Diedra Faulkner of Stafford, VA.
10/21/2003 US Secretary of State Colin Powell launched a bid to ?“put some energy?” into Sudan's peace talks, holding out a promise that the US would review its sanctions against Africa?’s largest nation if the government and rebels reach a final peace agreement. Powell stopped over in Kenya to press the 2 sides to complete their negotiations quickly to end Sudan's 2 decades of civil war. Khartoum and the southern rebels resolved some major issues last month, but negotiators said they were still weeks or months away from reaching a comprehensive peace agreement. The US withdrew its ambassador and closed its embassy in Khartoum in 1996, citing unspecified threats. In 1997, it imposed an embargo of most trade with Sudan and froze Sudanese assets, accusing Khartoum of supporting terrorism, violating human rights and denying religious freedoms. The main sticking points in the talks included who will administer 3 disputed territories, how to share the country?’s oil wealth and who will hold positions in a transitional government, Sudan People?’s Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman Yasir Arman said. But the talks were making progress, especially concerning wealth sharing, he added, without elaborating. A major factor in the war had been large oil fields along the natural dividing line between north and south Sudan. Last month, the 2 sides made a major breakthrough by agreeing to allow the SPLA to retain its forces in southern Sudan for a 6-year transition period. After that period, southerners would be given the chance to decide whether to remain part of Sudan.
10/21/2003 Swarms of locusts in northern Africa were threatening crops in areas previously blighted by drought, the UN food body said. Clouds of the desert locusts had already descended on areas of Mauritania, northern Niger and northeastern Sudan, said Annie Monard, a locust officer of the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). ?“There is a risk of invasion by swarms into southern Morocco and southern Algeria,?” Monard said. The desert locusts had bred rapidly, benefitting from humid conditions after good rainfall in the region, she added. Swarms of the migratory insects could devastate crops within minutes as they flew in huge numbers in search of food. They threaten crops such as sorghum and millet and had already damaged water melon in Mauritania, Monard said. FAO experts were organising experimental treatment with bio-pesticides and advising governments in the region how to prevent and control outbreaks, Mornard added. Desert locusts were normally solitary, scattered insects but when climatic conditions were favourable they could rapidly increase in number and group together. After several years of drought, exceptional rains in Mauritania had allowed the desert locusts to flourish. When they began to take on group characteristics young, wingless locusts, known as ?“hoppers,?” march together in search of food. They develop into adult, winged insects that formed swarms which may contain tens of millions of insects and rapidly travel great distances.
10/22/1936 Bobby Seale, future co-founder of the Black Panther Party, was born in Dallas, TX.
10/22/1952 Frank E. Peterson, Jr. was commissioned as the 1st Black-American marine aviation officer.
10/22/1955 The 1st US Post Office staffed by Black-Americans opened in Atlanta, GA.
10/22/1955 John Earl Reese became an early martyr of the Civil Rights Movement when he was shot and killed in Mayflower, TX. by Whites opposed to a new school for Black children.
10/22/1957 Dr. Francois Duvalier was elected President of Haiti.
10/22/1962 An air and naval blockade of Cuba, was announced by US President Kennedy, following the discovery of Soviet missile bases on the island.
10/22/1966 US park rangers and sheriff?’s deputies move in to Kit Carson National Forest; Reies Lopez Tijerina and his group 2 rangers for trespassing.
10/22/1979 The deposed Shah of Iran was allowed to travel to New York for medical treatment by the US government - a decision that precipitated the Iran hostage crisis.
10/22/1991 Thirty Black-American delegates concluded a 3-day visit to the Republic of South Africa at the invitation of the African National Congress, while there, TransAfrica's Randall Robinson charged US President George Bush with failing to exert his influence to end Black township strife and US Congresswoman Maxine Waters vowed to press US' cities and states to maintain sanctions against the Republic.
10/22/2001 Peru said it would insist former President Alberto Fujimori, in self-exile in Japan, be tried in Lima on charges of human rights abuse following reports Japan might try Fujimori. Fujimori ruled Peru with an iron fist for a decade from 1990, had been charged with responsibility for human rights violations. He denied any wrongdoing. He fled to Japan in 11/2000 at the height of a corruption scandal sparked by his influential top aide Vladimiro Montesinos and was fired as ?“morally unfit.'?” ?“Japan's willingness to try Fujimori in Japan, I believe is an improvement from the original position where Japan practically gave Fujimori total immunity ... but as Peru's government we have to insist (he) be tried in Peru,?” Prime Minister Roberto Danino told RPP radio.
10/22/2002 A major study by the Center for Women's Business Research of 807 women painted one of the most detailed portraits yet of the USA's 1.2 million minority female entrepreneurs. The number of such companies was growing 4 times faster than all US businesses, making them a major source of future economic growth. One highlight of the survey was that minority women were more likely than White women to start and run businesses by themselves. Black and Hispanic women were more likely now than in the past to start their companies as full-time ventures. And many had more trouble than White women getting financing. But, corporations wanted to learn these differences so they could better target their products and services, said Patti Ross, IBM's executive in charge of selling to female-owned firms. IBM, Wells Fargo and other big companies wanted to tap into that market.
10/22/2002 Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong and a delegation of close to 100 people jetted into Namibia for a 2-day state visit. Speaking through an interpreter, Luong immediately shared his impressions of ?“beautiful Namibia?” and remembered how Vietnamese and Namibians fought for their independence. He said his 1st visit to Namibia and Africa was mainly to thank ?“friends in Africa?” for standing behind his people and cement the existing good relations. Accompanied by First Lady Nguyen Thi Vinh and others Luong was entertained at a State banquet and will lay a wreath at Heroes' Acre on the outskirts of Windhoek on 10/23/02. A business delegation, led by Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vu Tien Loc, will hold talks with their Namibian counterparts while visits to Meatco and NamCot Diamonds had also been lined up. Namibian President Sam Nujoma had visited Vietnam for 3 days in 7/2002 when the 2 leaders signed an agreement on economic, commercial, cultural, scientific and technological co-operation and also agreed to set up diplomatic ties at the ambassadorial level and ministers were urged to exchange visits to explore opportunities to promote bilateral co-operation in trade, education and training.
10/22/2002 During the 11/2002 elections, 2 more states, Massachusetts and Colorado, will vote on ?“English-only?” laws that would dismantle bilingual programs for immigrant students. California and Arizona already had such laws.
10/22/2003 Rwanda replaced Sweden as the country with the most women in Parliament, the Inter-Parliamentary Union said. After elections that began last month, women held 39 of the 80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. ?“The country has come the closest to reaching parity between men and women of any national parliament,?” said the union, which links parliaments.
10/22/2003 CA Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, 54, president Bush's controversial nominee for a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, ran into a firestorm of criticism from Democrats during a 4-hour Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. The daughter of an Alabama sharecropper was grilled extensively about positions she had taken in speeches and in court opinions that Democrats said showed her to be a conservative activist outside the mainstream of public and judicial thinking. Among her critics was CA. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who openly questioned whether the Black jurist from the Sacramento area could be trusted to set aside her personal opinions and follow legal precedents if confirmed to the appeals court seat. The DC appellate court was widely viewed as 2nd in importance only to the US Supreme Court because of its exclusive role in many cases involving the federal government. Republicans, led by committee chairman Orrin Hatch of UT., were generally enthusiastic about Brown, whom many consider to be Bush's leading contender for the US Supreme Court when an opening occurs. With more than a couple dozen organizations, ranging from the NAACP to the People for the American Way, lining up to oppose her nomination, however, Brown's confirmation had become the newest judicial battleground. The committee had not said when it would vote on Brown?’s nomination, but she was likely to advance past the GOP-controlled committee to the Senate floor. Democrats already were filibustering 3 of Bush's conservative nominations there. Democrats on the committee pointed out that 165 of Bush's judicial nominees had been confirmed.
10/22/2003 South Africa was 1 of the top 4 suppliers of dagga/cannabis in the world, according to a study. The Interpol and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) study said Swazi gold fetched up to R45 000 a kilogram in Europe. Producer figures were generally measured by the amount of cannabis seized in a particular country. During the year 2000 South African police seized 718 tons of cannabis, 16% of the world total confiscated by police. The weed was farmed by peasants in the field for R250 a kilogram. Most of South Africa's supply was grown in Tanzania, Swaziland, Lesotho and the Eastern Cape for a growing market, which threw up a moral dilemma. According to Institute for Security Studies' Peter Gastrow, there was probably no illicit market that benefitted Southern Africa's poor more than (a) thriving market for cannabis. He said the peasant producers got only a slice of what was earned by the drug cartels who exported cannabis to Europe and North America. However, for the thousands of primary producers who sold cannabis to middlemen, the returns enabled them to eke out a living and sustain their families. Marijuana was widely accepted by indigenous peoples and as an indigenous plant, cannabis has had traditional users for the past 6000 years. To many producing and supplying the herb was not unlawful but merely a way to make a living and sustain families.
10/22/2003 Four suspended British police officers resigned after a television documentary exposed racism in the ranks. Police Constable (Pc) Rob Pulling, 1 of 8 officers featured in BBC1's, The Secret Policeman, resigned from North Wales Police as a top officer in his force admitted having felt ?“physically sick?” watching the programme. That afternoon, another 3 officers resigned from the Greater Manchester Police. All had been suspended over allegations of racist behaviour made in the hour-long documentary screened last night. Another 4 officers remained suspended while criminal and disciplinary investigations continued into the content of the programme. Home Secretary Mr. David Blunkett added his voice to the many senior police officers expressing their horror at the extreme racist behaviour of young recruits exposed in the programme. One top officer said he had felt ?“ashamed to be a member of the British police service?” while Mr Blunkett said the extent of the racist behaviour revealed in the film, broadcast last night, was ?“horrendous.?” Mr Daly, the Glaswegian journalist spent 7 months with the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) compiling a dossier of evidence against 7 recruits and 1 serving officer before being exposed and arrested. Pc Pulling, who was based in Rhyl, north Wales, was seen wearing a home-made Ku Klux Klan -style hood, saying he would bury an Asian under a train track and that Hitler had the ?“right idea.?” Murdered Black teenager Stephen Lawrence had ?“deserved it?” and those who killed him should be given ?“diplomatic immunity,?” he added. He labelled Mr Lawrence?’s parents ?“a fucking pair of spongers (See: 10/20/2003).?”
10/22/2003 The entry of yet another immigrant group into the mainstream of the nation's politics occurred last week. James Zogby, the President of the Arab American Institute, the Washington-based advocacy group that organized the 2-day meeting, recalled, it was not that long ago when presidential candidates of both parties rejected invitations to speak at such events and returned campaign contributions from donors with Middle Eastern names. With the chairman of President Bush's reelection campaign and virtually all the Democratic presidential hopefuls journeying here (or, in the case of 3 members of Congress detained by votes, appearing by satellite), Zogby said, ?“We have come a long, long way,?” and almost all of the journey occurred in 2 decades. That was how the Irish, the Italians, the Poles and other 19th-century immigrants became mayors and congressmen, often replacing the Yankees in those posts and long before their friends became bank presidents or full professors. It was why southern politicians such as Strom Thurmond were transformed by the Voting Rights Act from staunch segregationists into supporters of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The advice given at a workshop there on ?“mobilizing the Arab American vote?” drew on the experience of all those once-excluded groups. The ?“the 5 basics?” of gaining influence: Join a political party; contribute time and money; vote in every election; talk directly with elected officials about your issues and be prepared to endure defeats and stay involved over the years. Rewards were tangible. One came when Abed Awad, the head of the Arab American Democratic Caucus in NJ, told how he and his friends did a careful count of Middle Eastern immigrants in Paterson, NJ, mounted a registration campaign among them and presented the numbers to a candidate for mayor. They negotiated for their support and as a result of his victory, Awad said, ?“Paterson will have its 1st Arab American Deputy Mayor (See: 10/19/2003).?”
10/22/2003 British Home Office Minister Hazel Blears insisted racist attitudes were being rooted out by a new police training programme. Ms Blears told the BBC the 7 new tests designed to uncover racism: 2 written exercises, 2 tests in numeracy and verbal logical reasoning, 4 interactive exercises and an interview , had been failed by 4.5% of would-be recruits since they were introduced in 5/03. But was it really possible to weed out racists by testing or to train racial prejudice out of them? Manchester U sociologist Virinder Kalra did not think so. Dr Kalra told BBC News Online: ?“Training isn't going to change people's attitudes but what it should do is train them to be more professional and keep their prejudices to themselves. The people the new tests have weeded out are the real nutters who shouldn't be in the force in the first place because their views are so extreme.?” Mary Gray of Diversity UK, which published a directory of diversity consultants, believed tests for racial prejudice can work but said many people know how to avoid detection. Many critics felt the new tests would prove no more successful at rooting out racists than other means tried by the police. Dr. Kalra pointed out and said: ?“Diversity training is nothing new, they've been doing this for 20 years and still you get documentaries about racism in the police force.?” And that pessimism was reflected by reports by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), whose job was to examine and improve the efficiency of the Police Service in England and Wales. In recent years HMIC has conducted a total of 7 inspections into diversity training, but in the latest report, Diversity Matters, published in 5/2003, the authors commented on the failure of police authorities to fully implement the earlier reports?’ recommendations. The report concluded the overall picture regarding diversity training was one of inconsistency, an absence of agreed national standards and proper evaluation.
10/23/1783 Virginia emancipated slaves who had fought for independence during the Revolutionary War, while Blacks who had fought for the British cause were transported to Canada and eventually to Sierra Leone.
10/23/1847 William Leidesdorff brought his ship Sitka from Sitka, Alaska, to San Francisco, CA., earlier in the year, the Danish West Indies Native had launched the first steamboat ever to sail in San Francisco Bay. The ventures were one of many activities for Leidesdorff, which included appointment as United States vice-counsel, for property acquisition in San Francisco (See: 8/2/1818 and 8/2/1847).
10/23/1886 Black-American Wiley Jones operated the 1st streetcar system in Pine Bluff, AK.
10/23/1865 George William Gordon was a free colored land owner and an associate of Paul Bogle (See: 10/11/1865). 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. As a member of the Legislative Assembly he berated the narrow-minded and insensitive Jamaican Governor Edward Eyre, for his failure to better the condition of the working class. Eyre had Gordon removed from the assembly and blamed him for the 'Morant Bay Rebellion 'Gordon. He was arrested and charged for complicity in what is now called the Morant Bay Rebellion in 1865. He was illegally tried by court martial and, in spite of a lack of evidence, convicted, sentenced to death and hanged on this date (b: ?/?/1818, Jamaica).
10/23/1910 Blanche S. Scott was the 1st woman to fly solo when she sailed across a city park at an altitude of 12 feet in Fort Wayne, Ind.
10/23/1915 A protest march by 25,000 women was held in New York City demanding the right to vote.
10/23/1946 Mel Martinez, who in 1962 along with 14,000 other children fled to America as part of a Catholic humanitarian effort called Operation Pedro Pan, alone and speaking virtually no English, he will subsequently live with 2 foster families, with whom he will remain close. He will reunite with his family in Orlando in 1966. He will become actively involved in community activities, a Republican and he will be unanimously confirmed by the US Senate and will take his oath of office on 1/24/ 2001, becoming the nation's 12th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), was born in Sagua La Grande, Cuba.
10/23/1947 The NAACP petitioned the UN and brought racial injustice charges against the US.
10/23/1978 China and Japan exchanged treaty ratification documents in Tokyo formally ending 4 decades of hostility.
10/23/1989 Ethiopian Emperor Amha Selassie I moved to Washington, DC.
10/23/1995 Yolanda Saldivar was convicted of murdering Tejano singing star Selena by a Houston jury.
10/23/1997 The Hong Kong Stock Market lost nearly 1/4 of its value in 4 days on fears over interest rates and pressures on the Hong Kong dollar; other Asian markets also plunged.
10/23/1998 Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, followed 9 days of talks at Wye River, Md., signed a breakthrough land-for-peace West Bank agreement at the White House.
10/23/2000 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il welcomed US Secretary of State Madeline Albright to Pyongyang, putting aside a half-century of acrimony and laying the groundwork fro a visit by US President Bill Clinton.
10/23/2001 An African Economic Summit opened in the Nigerian capital of Abuja to discuss ways of implementing a rescue plan to lift Africa out of poverty and set the stage for economic growth and development. Only 12 out of 19 heads of state attending the meeting, hosted by Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo were in attendance. Leaders at the opening ceremony were South African President Thabo Mbeki, along with his counterparts Abdelaziz Bouteflika from Algeria, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Omar Bongo of Gabon, Alpha Oumar Konare from Mali, Joaquim Chissano from Mozambique, Abdoulaye Wade from Senegal, Benjamin Mkapa from Tanzania, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from Tunisia, Paul Kagame from Rwanda and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Ghana and Uganda were represented by top government officials. Other countries whose leaders had been expected here were Botswana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Sao Tome and Principe and Zambia. Mbeki (South Africa) and Wade (Senegal) had drafted different plans for developing the continent, but merged these into the New African Initiative earlier this year. Mbeki was the principle architect of the plan, known as the New African Initiative (NAI), which sat conditions for development by establishing peace, security and good governance. It also sought to curb debt, boost infrastructure and market access and protect the environment. The NAI was adopted by the 53-member Organisation of African Unity (OAU) last July in Lusaka and hailed by Western leaders at a G8 summit in Genoa, Italy. African leaders in Abuja faced a mammoth task ahead, with war and poverty ravaging the continent. Some 340 million people in Africa or half the population, lived on less than a dollar per day. The mortality rate of children under age 5 was 140 per 1000 and life expectancy at birth was only 54 years. Only 58% of the population had access to safe water. Africa's partners in the industrialised world said the rescue plan laid the groundwork for sustainable growth in Africa, rather than relying on traditional aid packages.
10/23/2001 Hundreds of Zimbabweans sought refuge at a Johannesburg police station after their shacks were torched in a xenophobic attack, police said. South African residents of the Zandspruit informal settlement at Honeydew, just west of Johannesburg, allegedly attacked the foreigners, accusing them of crime and taking up scarce jobs.
10/23/2001 More than 100 people were shot dead by rampaging soldiers in central Nigeria in the latest bout of unrest in this crisis-torn country. The reprisal attacks late came after 19 soldiers were killed and mutilated by ethnic militiamen 2 weeks ago near the border of the south central states of Benue and Taraba. Over the years, Nigeria had faced waves of religious and ethnic unrest which claimed thousands of lives. With a population of more than 121.8 million, the crowded country was one of the most ethnically diverse on earth with more than 250 indigenous ethnic groups and also splits north and south along religious lines. In the last two years, a dozen northern states have introduced strict Islamic law to the chagrin of the Nigerian government and Christians, who continued to oppose the adoption. More than 100 people were killed last week in the northern city of Kano in Muslim riots against US attacks on Afghanistan, while more than 500 died in Jos in 9/2001. In 6/2001, scores were killed and tens of thousands were uprooted in Taraba and its neighboring state of Nasarawa in ethnic clashes. Worried by the spate of deadly violence in the country, President Obasanjo last week set up a panel on national security. The President told the 14-member panel ?“to find a lasting solution to the incessant cases of breach of peace and security in the country.?” The panel was expected to study the causes of unrest and make appropriate recommendations to the government. Apart from religious and ethnic clashes, agitation for a larger share in the nation's oil wealth had also claimed hundreds of lives in the oil-rich southern Niger-Delta region of the country.
10/23/2001 A 2-day international meeting on combating human trafficking in west Africa opened in Accra, Ghana drawing member states of the regional 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the UN Office for
Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNODCCP). ECOWAS, founded in 1975 to promote regional economic integration and included Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. UNODCCP official Burkhard Damman said: ?“the rapid expansion of trafficking in human beings by organised criminal groups has become an issue of major concern worldwide. Increasingly, at national and international levels, criminal organisations have become more sophisticated, due to improved transport, communication and information technology.?” Damman also said ?“corrupt immigration officers are working in league with criminal organisations?” and added: ?“it is thought that between 700,000 and two million women and children worldwide are bought and sold every year and UNICEF estimated that about 200,000 children are trafficked every year in the central and west African sub-region.?” Sources said the meeting was expected to culminate in an action plan to ?“eradicate?” human trafficking in the region.
10/23/2001 A 26-year-old class-action lawsuit over the funding of historically Black universities in Mississippi could soon result in a $503 million settlement, requiring the state to issue bonds for at least $75 million in capital improvements to the schools. The case began in 1975, when Jake Ayers sued the state, accusing MS. of neglecting its 3 historically Black universities. Ayers claimed that Jackson State, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State, MS's historically Black universities, did not offer the same the advantages or funding afforded to colleges that White students attended. US Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the court-appointed lead plaintiff fo the class, accepted the deal as the best solution, although he did not receive everything he wanted. Several years ago Thompson replaced Lillie Ayers as the lead plaintiff. She was the widow of Jake Ayers, who filed the suit on behalf of his son. She opposed the settlement, saying it did not go far enough in addressing discrimination. The class of plaintiffs was described in the proposed settlement as ?“all Black citizens residing in Mississippi, whether students, former students parents, employees or taxpayers?” discriminated against because of race and therefore unable to receive an equal education or employment opportunities at the state's universities. US District Judge Neal Biggers held a hearing at the request of some of the plaintiffs to ?“opt out?” of the lawsuit because they disagreed with the terms of the settlement.
10/23/2002 When Roberto Guerrero wheels the No. 09 Busch Grand National car out onto the track this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, it will mark the 1st time that a car owned, driven and sponsored by Hispanics will compete in a major NASCAR event. Along for the ride with driver Guerrero will be the thoughts, well wishes and hopes of millions of Hispanic race fans. Guerrero, a native of Colombia who had driven in the top open-wheel series in the world, welcomed the company he'll have. Guerrero's car was owned by HRT (Hispanic Racing Team) Motorsports, which was founded in 1999 by Rudy Rodriquez and Mike Vasquez. It was sponsored by Ciclon, an energy-drink company headquartered in Panama. The car will be competing in its 3rd race of the year. In the first 2 races, the car was been driven by Busch veteran David Green, who helped shake the car down for the new owners.
10/23/2002 US Congresswoman Nydia M. Vel?¡zquez (D-NY), Ranking Democratic Member of the House Committee on Small Business, has released a report titled, ?“Broken Promises: A Stalled Agenda for American Small Business,?” on the small business legislative track record of the 107th Congress and the Bush Administration. The report examined such issues as business growth and development, health care affordability, pension and tax reform, fairness in federal contracting and retaining a qualified workforce. In addition, the report took a look at small business legislation under the Bush administration to evaluate their benefit to small enterprise. ?“All the issues outlined in our report are bipartisan and if the legislation addressing these issues had been acted upon, it would have provided the stimulus this economy so desperately needs,?” Congresswoman Vel?¡zquez said. ?“Instead, many of the initiatives were used as political pawns, tacked onto bills that went nowhere or were eliminated at the last minute to help big business.?”
10/23/2003 More than 300 illegal workers were arrested by federal officials at 61 Wal-Mart stores across the country early that morning and they searched the office of one of the retail chain's corporate executives, a federal official said. The workers, members of cleaning crews that the company hired through a contractor, were arrested as they finished their night shifts at stores in 21 states. All were in the country illegally, according to Garrison Courtney, a spokesman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The arrests stemmed from a 11/1998 investigation done in conjunction with the PA. attorney general's office. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., was the world's largest retailer. Company spokeswoman Mona Williams confirmed the government was investigating and that stores were raided. She said Wal-Mart would give more information later. The states where arrests were made were: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
10/23/2003 Eritrea was being visited by Donald Yamamoto, US Assistant Deputy Secretary of State for African affairs on the latest leg of a Horn of Africa tour for talks expected to focus on the border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. On a ?“familiarisation?” trip to the region he had already visited Ethiopia and Djibouti. Washington had described Eritrea as one of its strongest partners in the US war on terrorism following the 9/11/ 2001 attacks. Yamamoto, a former US Ambassador to Djibouti, was due to meet with President Issaias Afeworki to discuss ?“issues of mutual interest,?” according to a US embassy official. Asked during his stop in Ethiopia if he was attempting a new mediation on the border dispute, Yamamoto said: ?“It's a possible subject.?” An independent arbitration commission tasked with defining the border gave its ?“final and binding?” decision in 4/2002. But Ethiopia had rejected the ruling, insisting that it and not Eritrea should have been given the town of Badme, where the last war began in 1998.
10/23/2003 Once, after the successful orbit of John Glenn?’s spaceship in 2/1962 and during turmoil over Civil Rights, Lyndon Johnson, then US VP and nominally in charge of America's space program, turned to President John Kennedy and said, ?“(If only) Glenn were a Negro.?” But back in the day the people running the space program were not only all-male and buzz cut, but whiter than white: pictures from the era show earnest geeks who looked like they weren't even allowed to walk in the sunlight lest they get a bit of a tan. That changed, though not quickly and not without struggle. To date, there had been 13 Black astronauts and Black scientists were a growing presence in the fields of aerospace engineering, astronomy and space science. Though there had been strides in Blacks taking up successful careers in space exploration and astronomy, Neil de Grasse Tyson, 44, recalled that for years, ?“the system was not streamlined to allow children of color to have an easy time trying to be astrophysicists, but was streamlined to allow other things, like athletics.?” Tyson, who was Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium, continued: ?“I worry that it's not any different now. Stereotypes are hard to circumvent. I'd like to think that it's easier, but I don't know.?” Tyson?’s advice to would-be astrophysicists, aerospace engineers and astronauts was ?“Go for it, but you need reality checking. There?’s a belief you have more talent than you have or that you have more talent than you admit to yourself. Anything that?’s worth earning takes a lot of time. Lots of math, lots of physics, lots of school. I didn?’t have a meaningful paycheck until I was 29. That?’s why you have to love it. Pick something you?’d do for free and make it your career.?” Black Astronauts: Past, Present, Future: Michael P. Anderson (1959-2003) Endeavor 1998, died in Columbia disaster 2003; Guion S. Bluford, Jr. (1942-) Challenger 1983, Challenger 1985, Discovery 1991, Discovery 1992; Charles F. Bolden, Jr. (1946-) Columbia 1986, Discovery 1990, Atlantis 1992 and Discovery 1994; Yvonne Cagle (1959-) No flights as of yet; Robert L. Curbeam, Jr. (1962-) Discovery 1997 and Atlantis 2001; Frederick D. Gregory (1941-) Challenger 1985, Discovery 1989, and Atlantis 1991; Bernard A. Harris (1956-) Columbia 1993, Discovery 1995 ; Joan E. Higginbotham (1964-) No flights as of yet ; Mae C. Jemison (1956-) Endeavor 1992 ; Ronald E. McNair (1950-1986) Died in Challenger Disaster (1986) ; Leland D. Melvin (1964-) No flights as of yet ; Winston E. Scott (1950-) Endeavor in 1996 and Columbia in 1997 and Stephanie Wilson (1966-) No flights as of yet.
10/24/1891 Rafael Trujillo, future President of the Dominican Republic (1930-5/30/1961), was born (d: 5/30/1961 at age 69).
10/24/1892 The 1st major job stoppage in US labor history by Black-Americans occurred when 25,000 workers stroke in New Orleans, LA.
10/24/1915 Cacaos Bandits in Haiti ambushed a US Marine patrol composed of about 40 men on horseback that ventured into the mountains near Fort Dipitie as they attempted to ford a river in the vicinity of Grosse Roche, Haiti near the Fort.
10/24/1923 Approximately 500,000 Black-Americans had left the South in the preceding 12 months according to a report issued by the U.S. Department of Labor.
10/24/1929 Stock market clashed and the beginning of the Great Depression.
10/24/1935 Black-Americans held mass meetings of protest and raised funds for the Ethiopian defenders after Italy invaded Ethiopia.
10/24/1945 The UN officially came into existence as its charter took effect with the US and Europe being the dominant members of the organization.
10/24/1948 Frizzel Gray aka: Kweisi Mfume, an adopted African name that meant "Conquering Son of Kings," will be elected a US Congressman from Maryland's 7th District (D-MD, 1986- ) and he will later leave the Congress to become the head of the NAACP, was born in Baltimore, MD.
10/24/1951 The 17-Point Agreement between Tibet and China was ratified by the Dalai Lama and the National Assembly (See: 5/23/1951).
10/24/1954 Premier Ngo Dinh Diem was advised by US President Eisenhower that the US would provide assistance directly to South Vietnam rather than channeling it through the French, thus slightly circumventing the Geneva Agreement signed on 7/21/1954.
10/24/1962 The blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis officially began under a US proclamation signed by President Kennedy.
10/24/1964 The Republic of Zambia, formerly Northen Rhodesia, gained its independence from Britain with Kenneth David Kuanda as its 1st President.
10/24/1980 Discrimination charges brought by Black and female employees of the Republic National Bank were confirmed by the US Supreme Court when discovery highlighted that of the bank?’s 570 officers, only 15 were Black.
10/24/1996 ?“Why were drugs so easily available in Black communities??” was the question when US Senator Arlen Spector began an investigation into the role of the CIA in making drugs easily available in Black communities.
10/24/2001 A study by the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate found that a largely unexplained gap between the home ownership rates of Blacks and Whites in LA County still would exist even if education and income levels of the 2 groups were equal. The report provided new insight into differences in home ownership rates among Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Whites in the county. ?“One possibility is that Blacks may feel limited in their housing choices, given the relatively limited number of predominantly Black or integrated neighborhoods in Los Angeles County,?” said Stuart Gabriel, Ph.D., Director of the Lusk Center and an author of the study. ?“With fewer housing choices, Blacks may be more inclined to rent than to buy. It is also likely that the decline in Black home ownership in LA County was partly offset by increases in Black home ownership in surrounding counties, reflecting the selective movement of younger Black households to outlying areas,?” Gabriel said. The study found Latinos would have the same rate of home ownership as Whites and Asians if they had the same level of education and income as those groups. According to the researchers, the difference in the home ownership rates of Blacks and Whites in LA County increased during the period of the study even though the percentage of Blacks in the population declined. ?“Discrimination in access to home ownership may well have held down Black home ownership, but it is not likely that discrimination increased during the study period," Gabriel said.
10/24/2001 Twelve Africans, 7 Egyptians, 2 Kenyans, 1 Tanzanian, 1 Libyan and 1 Comorian were included on the list of the 22 most wanted terrorists released 2 weeks ago by the US State Department, testimony to the fact that Islamic fundamentalism was no longer the sole purview of Middle Eastern or North African states, but existed in much of sub-Saharan Africa as well. Although no African state, except perhaps Sudan, risked attack by the US in the war on terrorism, leaders of African states, particularly those with large Muslim populations, were bracing for the political repercussions of the American strikes on Afghanistan. More Muslims live in Africa than in the Middle East, 380 million to about 200 million and 22 nations were members of the Organization of Islamic Conference. Governments on the continent were keenly aware of the religious tensions in their societies and were putting in place diplomatic, economic and military measures to contain a possible backlash from the continent's myriad fundamentalist movements. As religious tensions spilled over in countries like Algeria, Nigeria, Somalia and South Africa, many wondered how the Islamist movements could be integrated into African states' fledgling and precarious political systems. In some countries it had become a valid question whether those practicing traditional African religions and Christians and Muslims could live together peacefully.
10/24/2001 In Marriabad, a modest mountainside town in southwestern Pakistan, young boys, instead of waving banners proclaiming death to America, fly homemade kites. Marriabad was an oasis in a parched desert of angry protesters and Osama bin Laden posters. There America was not the target of a tide of hatred, but the Oz of ambitions and dreams. The town became a magnet for the Hazaras fleeing Soviet invaders and civil war, resilient refugees from central and western Afghanistan. They traced their lineage to Genghis Khan's Mongol warriors and their ancestors built the giant Buddhas in Bamiyan that were destroyed by the Taliban in 3/2001. The Hazaras long ago converted to Islam, but they have had an often- violent rivalry with the Pashtuns, who dominated Afghanistan. When the Taliban, who were Pashtun, took control of most of the country, the exodus of Hazaras increased manifold. There were private schools, electricity and water carried to the highest points in the village through a crude maze of pipes and pumps. Make no mistake, the place was poor, bu still, there was hope on the hill. Women could walk the streets with their faces uncovered and girls went to school.
10/24/2001 Hispanic and Black leaders from Providence, which was 30% Hispanic, went to the State House, pressing their case for maintaining and gaining political power as Rhode Island took on the twin tasks of redistricting and downsizing the General Assembly. Members of the newly formed Latino Voting Rights Coalition began the evening with a news conference on the State House stairs, emphasizing that Rhode Island's Hispanic population doubled in the 1990s. The RI Senate, will shrink from 50 to 38 members as part of voter-mandated downsizing, contained no Hispanics and one Black member, Senator Charles D. Walton (D), of Providence.
10/24/2001 Management and staff of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Secretariat agreed to a freeze on increments and new hiring, as part of a voluntary austerity package for the organization. Acting Director-General George Goodwin, in a letter to OECS Chairman Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell of Grenada, said the decision was taken in recognition of the current economic and fiscal situation facing member states including the negative impact of a declining world economy which has been compounded by last month's terrorist attacks on the US. The austerity package affected the St Lucia-based Central Secretariat's core staff and units, the Dominica-based Export Development Unit, the Antigua/Barbuda- based Directorate of Civil Aviation, the embassy in Brussels and the high commission in Ottawa. The OECS comprised Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
10/24/2001 The National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) via its President and CEO Harry Alford, called on the members of the US Congress to express their opposition to recently imposed trade restraints by the Commerce Secretary Don Evans on imports of Canadian lumber that they said significantly harm consumers, and negatively impact affordable housing efforts in the US. NBCC, the world's largest organization dedicated to Black-American business empowerment, was leading a national effort to support the construction of one million new homes to assist low to moderate income families throughout the US these efforts would be significantly harmed, according to the organization. ?“Recent efforts by the Commerce Department pose a grave threat to those families' dreams of home ownership," said Mr. Alford. ?“Specifically, the Commerce Department imposed a 19.3% countervailing duty and may soon impose an additional anti-dumping duty that could add thousands of dollars to the cost of a new home. The White House's Trade Representative also is negotiating to force Canada to impose an export tax on lumber used in homes. These Federally-imposed sales taxes on lumber alone -- however they are imposed -- would amount to over $1 billion in additional costs to construct the one million new affordable homes we hope to see built in the next five years." Mr. Alford urged Members of Congress to join the NBCC and other consumer groups in vigorously opposing these taxes and restrictions. More than 100 members of Congress had expressed support for free trade in lumber between the US and Canada by sponsoring H. Con. Res. 45 or S. Con. Res. 4. NBCC was an active member of the American Consumers for Affordable Homes, a 15- member alliance of organizations and companies that were fighting trade restraints on softwood lumber from Canada that harm US consumers.
10/24/2002 Nigeria said that it would not comply with an order by the World Court to withdraw from an oil-rich territory ceded by the court to Cameroon and it accused World Court judges of colonial-era bias. Ownership of the peninsula had implications for offshore oil rights at a time when volatility in the Middle East had increased US interest in West Africa as an alternative source of crude. Nigeria, one of Africa's biggest oil producer and Cameroon had clashed repeatedly over their disputed border, stretching some 400 square miles, since 1993, when the 2 countries began a massive buildup of troops there. The statement, was issued after President Obasanjo chaired a scheduled cabinet meeting, accused French, English and German court officials of manipulating the court in favor of their respective countries. Bakassi fell variously under German, French and British rule between the late 1800s, when Europe carved up Africa for colonial administration and 1960, when Cameroon and Nigeria became independent. The court based its decision mainly on a 1913 treaty when Britain ceded Bakassi to Germany, basis that the Nigerian statement called ?“contrary to all known laws and conventions ( See 10/10/2002).?”
10/24/2003 A father, Robert Lee Foster, 51, and daughter, Crystal Foster, 25, who sought reparation for slavery in the preparation of false income tax returns were sent to prison in Virginia. Robert, an accountant, was sent away for 17 years, and his daughter Crystal, received a 3-year sentence for collecting more than $500,000 from the IRS for nonexistent ?“federal slavery tax credits?” on her 2001 return. The action by the Fosters, though clearly illegal, refocused light on the question of how and if Blacks should be paid for a system that disenfranchised and kept them in bondage for close to 200 years. Law enforcement officials said that Foster, the father, also prepared 2001 returns for other people claiming more than $3.6 million in reparations, most for about $500,000 each. The one refund that was mistakenly paid out went to Crystal, who had no trouble putting it to use.
10/24/2003 Army Spec. Shoshana Johnson, the Black women who was held prisoner of war in the US invasion of Iraq, was looking forward to a quiet discharge from the Army in a few days. Battle scarred and weary, she had said not a word as her fellow POW comrade in arms Jessica Lynch cashed in with book and movie deals and a celebrity status in the media. But it was the Army that was forcing Johnson to break her peace. A few days ago, military brass informed her that she would receive a 30% disability benefit for her injuries. Lynch, who was White, was discharged in 8/03and will receive an 80% disability benefit. The difference amounted to $600 or $700 a month in payments and that was causing Johnson and her family to speak out. They were so troubled by what they see as a ?“double standard,?” that they enlisted Jesse Jackson to help make their case to the news media. Jackson, who planned to plead Johnson?’s cause with the White House, the Pentagon and members of Congress, said the payment smacks a double standard and racism. Johnson?’s father, Claude Johnson, himself an Army veteran, said that while neither he nor his family begrudged Lynch her celebrity or disability payments, he believed that his daughter should get her due and it was more than a 30% disability benefit. For its part, the Army, in denying charges of double standard, said that claims were awarded to soldiers according to their injuries. Johnson, 30, the mother of a 3-year-old daughter, was held captive for 22 days, when her unit stumbled into an ambush in southern Iraq last 3/03. Eleven solders were killed and 6 including Lynch and Johnson, were taken prisoners. Johnson was shot in both legs and was still traumatized by her war experience. In addition to walking with a limp, she suffered from bouts of depression. ?“Here's a case of 2 women, same (unit), same war; everything about their service commitment and their risk is equal. . . . Yet there's an enormous contrast between how the military has handled these 2 cases,?” Jackson told The Washington Post.
10/24/2003 Al Sharpton was the Democrat most favored to win the White House in 2004 or he was the candidate who would probably come in last and it all depended on the race of the person viewing his campaign to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Av. That?’s the conclusion of a special analysis conducted for the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA), which served more than 200 Black newspapers, by the Gallup Organization. Based on interviews with Blacks, Gallup found Sharpton, President and founder of the NY-based National Action Network, easily leading the Democratic field with 22%, 9 points ahead of runner-up, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark. Among Whites, however, Sharpton came in last, with only 1%. Among Whites, Clark received 22% the identical amount Sharpton received from Blacks and 7 points more than former Vermont governor, Howard Dean, who had been the front-runner throughout most of the campaign. Former IL Sen. Carol Mosley Braun, the only other Black in the race, placed 5th among Blacks, behind Sharpton, Clark, Joseph Lieberman and Dean, with 7%. Although Sharpton had never held elective office, he had pulled off several significant political surprises. His 1992 campaign for the US Senate attracted approximately 70% of NY state's Black vote. His 1994 challenge to US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan received more than 80% of the Black vote and 26% of the general vote. In his 1997 run for NYC Mayor, Sharpton came within a percentage point of being in a Democratic run-off with Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, who later lost in the general election to incumbent Rudolph Giuliani.
10/25/1858 US Senator William H. Seward coined the phase ?“irrepressible conflict?” in a Rochester, NY speech, predicting that the slave and free states cannot continue to coexist.
10/25/1886 The Statute of Liberty was completed. Concerned by the President of the French Anti-Slavery Society and inspired by the North?’s Civil War victory, the statute featured broken chains at Liberty?’s feet.
10/25/1915 Attorney James L. Curtis was named US Minister to Liberia (1915-17), he died in office (b: 7/8/1870, Raleigh, NC and d:?/?/1917 at 47(?)).
10/25/1940 Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr. was promoted to Brigadier General, the 1st Black-American to attain that rank in the US Army or any other branch of the Armed Forces by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (d: 11/26/1970).
10/25/1960 Belynda Blair Bady, future real estate entrepreneur, was born in Philadelphia, PA.
10/25/1962 Uganda was admitted as the 110th member of the United Nations.
10/25/1968 Afro-Canadian Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable was officially recognized by the City of Chicago as its 1st settler.
10/25/1971 The People?’s Republic of China was admitted to and the Republic of China was expelled from the UN by a vote of the UN General Assembly.
10/25/1976 Clarence "Willie" Norris, the last surviving member of the 9 Scottsboro Boys, who were convicted in 1931 of the alleged rape of 2 White women on a freight train, who spent 15 years in prison and had been a fugitive fleeing parole in Alabama since 1946, was pardoned by Governor George Wallace.
10/25/1982 The survivors of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark who were killed by the Chicago police settled for $1.85 million from the US government.
10/25/1983 The Caribbean nation of Grenada was invaded by US Marines, assisted by soldiers from 6 other Caribbean nations, on the orders of US President Reagan, who said the action was needed to protect US citizens there while also overthrowing Grenada?’s elected ?“leftist?” government.
10/25/1983 Mary Frances Berry, a professor of history at Howard University, was fired by US President Ronald Reagan from the US Civil Rights Commission for her criticism of the government?’s inactivity on civil rights.
10/25/1988 Two units of the Ku Klux Klan and 11 individuals were ordered to pay $1 million to Black-Americans who were attacked during a brotherhood rally in predominately White Forsythe County, GA.
10/25/1997 The ?“Million Woman March?” organized by and led by Phile Chionesu and Asia Coney, had been promoted by word of mouth and avoided traditional media and mainstream groups, such as sororities and many civil rights groups. Ms. Chionesu called the march "a declaration of independence from ignorance, poverty, enslavement, and all the in things that have happened to us that has helped to bring about the confusion and disharmony that we experience with one another." took place in Philadelphia, PA.
10/25/2000 Scientists from the Community Museums of Kenya and the College de France in Paris unearthed fossilized remains of mankind?’s earliest known ancestor that predates previous discoveries by more than 1.5 million years. The 1st remains of ?“Millennium Man?” were discovered in the Tugen Hills of Kenya?’s Baringo District. The remains are at least 6 million years old, previous oldest was found in Aramis in Ethiopia, 4.5 million and ?“Lucy?” also from Ethiopia at 3.2 million.
10/25/2002 Former Dallas Mayor and Democratic US Senate nominee Ron Kirk, was the target in an attempt by his Republican opponent, Texas Attorney General John Cornyn, to undermine him for attending a summit sponsored by the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. When Kirk and Cornyn faced each other during a live debate before a panel of local reporters, Kirk was asked to explain his attendance, to which he stated he was simply there to encourage young people to get out and vote in the 11/2002 elections.
10/25/2002 Criticizing trade restrictions since the 9/11 attack on the US, Australia?’s Prime Minister John Howard, whose party was no friend to Aboriginal rights, promised to give the world?’s 50 poorest countries better access to his continent/nation?’s markets and called on other rich nations to do the same. Arriving for a Summit of Pacific Rim leaders, he said free trade was the best way to assist developing nations/countries. He criticized agricultural subsidies to restrict trade used by the US, Japan and the European Union.
10/25/2002 Results from the 1st legislative elections in nearly 30 years allowed by Bahrain's King, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, a Sunni, showed a mix of secularist and Islamic candidates winning seats, with 2 women securing places in run-off polls. The women who won places in the run-offs were Latifa al-Qaoud, 46, who sought to represent a southern province, she also was a single woman who headed the Planning and Development Department in the Ministry of Finance and Fouzia Ahmed Ruwaie, from a northern, predominantly Shiite Muslim province. The election was a milestone for women as it marked the 1st time they had been empowered to vote and run for national office in a Gulf Arab nation. The Justice Ministry said that 19 candidates had been elected to the 40-seat Parliament, including 3 who ran unopposed. The remaining 21 seats would be decided in run-off elections scheduled for 10/31/02. The elections themselves were celebrated as a major step toward democracy in Bahrain, a tiny island kingdom in a region dominated by traditional rulers. The Parliament had a 2nd chamber, a Council appointed by the King, that had as much power as the elected Assembly.
10/25/2003 The NAACP had adopted a stinging resolution opposing President Bush's nomination of Claude A. Allen, 43, a Black Virginian and Republican, to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals. Allen, Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, was expected to get a chance to defend his record against criticism from liberals that he was a conservative ideologue with weak legal qualifications. The NAACP?’s Board of Directors adopted a resolution on 10/18 opposing Allen's nomination and urging his defeat ?“in the strongest possible terms.?” The 3-page resolution, provided to the Richmond Times- Dispatch, said, ?“The NAACP is deeply concerned that Claude Allen has built his career on the backs of right wing extremists and segregationists. Even more alarming,?” the resolution said, ?“is that Allen has been a staunch defender of the extremist actions?” of former Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), who once employed him. The statement said Allen was supportive of Helms' filibuster against a bill for a federal Martin Luther King holiday, agreed with Helms' opposition to extending a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Act and defended Helms' efforts to eliminate social programs. The 4th Circuit Court heard appeals from MD, VA, NC, SC and WV and was one step below the nation's highest court.
10/26/1919 Edward William Brooke III , will serve in WW II, obtain a law degree from Boston University in 1948, will be elected Attorney General of the State of Massachusetts (1963-67), where he will gain a reputation as a vigorous prosecutor of organized crime. He will be elected to the US Senate as a Republican (11/8/1966), the 1st Black elected since Reconstruction, while in the Senate he will oppose President Nixon's policies in Southeast Asia, advocate low- income housing and oppose quotas to meet affirmative action goals. Brooke will serve on the President?’s Commission on Civil Disorders (1967), which investigated the causes of race riots in American cities and played a major role in the successful fight against confirmation of the nomination of G. Harrold Carswell to the US Supreme Court (1970). Among his awards will be the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1967. After leaving the Senate in 1979 he will head the National Low-income Housing Coalition, was born in Washington, DC (See: 11/1963, 11/8/1966 and 8/5/1968).
10/26/1919 Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, future Shah of Iran (1941-79), was born (d: 7/27/1980 at age 60) (See:10/26/ 1967).
10/26/1921 Solomon Porter Hood was named US Minister to Liberia (1922-26) (b: 7/30/1853, Lancaster, PA, d: ?/?/1943 at age 90(?), Atlantic Highlands, NJ).
10/26/1934 Charles Hamilton Houston began the new NAACP policy of undermining legalized segregation instead of working to enforce the ?“separate but equal?” doctrine (b: 9/3/1895, Washington, DC, d: 4/22/1950 at age 50, DC).
10/26/1947 Hillary Rodham Clinton, future attorney, 1st Lady of Arkansas, 1st Lady of the US and US Senator (D-NY, 1/2001- ), was born.
10/26/1955 Emperor Bao Dia was overthrown and the Republic of Vietnam was established with Ngo Dinh Diem as its 1st President.
10/26/1967 The Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, crowned himself and his Queen on his 48th birthday, after 26 years on the Peacock Throne (See: 10/26/1919).
10/26/1967 US President Johnson visited El Paso, Texas, where he returned land in the Chamizal region to Mexico and his Inter-Agency Committee on Mexican-American Affairs held hearings for 2 days that were boycotted by Chicano leaders.
10/26/1975 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the 1st Egyptian President to pay an official visit to the US.
10/26/1976 Trinidad & Tobago became a Republic.
10/26/1977 Dr. Clifford R. Wharton Jr. was named Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY).
10/26/1979 South Korean President Park Chung-hee was shot to death by Kim Jae-kyu, the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.
10/26/1994 Jordanian Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel signed a peace treaty in a ceremony attended by US President Clinton.
10/26/2001 Evelio Grillo, born a Black Cuban 82 years ago in Ybor City, never passed the brown bag test. ?“If you were lighter than a brown bag, you could be a White Cuban. Many went into the White Cuban community, and they had no contact with Black Cubans. If you were the same color as a brown bag, it was iffy,?” he said form his home in Oakland, CA.. During an era when Jim Crow laws segregated Blacks from Whites in the South, having dark-colored skin outweighed having Cuban parents and speaking Spanish. Grillo turned his experiences in Ybor City and elsewhere in America into a book and that memoir, Black Cuban, Black American, was chosen this year as required reading for the University of Tampa's freshman class.
10/26/2001 It?’s not news that somebody else was accusing Jesse Jackson of running a race-based shakedown operation under the guise of civil-rights activism. What was news was who's saying it now: Harold Doley Jr., a Black-American Wall Street securities broker. Doley, 54, was one of the wealthiest Black-Americans in the country and also the 1st Black man to purchase a seat on the New York Stock. Exchange. The well-connected Doley was instrumental in helping Jackson start his Wall Street Project in 1997. Doley, head of his own securities firm, said he agreed with the Wall Street Project's stated goals of expanding financial-sector job opportunities for Blacks. But he bailed out when he became concerned that the initiative might be turning into ?“racketeering.?” ?“His effectiveness is in shaking down corporate America. His income for his operations, since he's come to Wall Street, has gone from $695,000 to over $17 million last year. There is no dot-com stock I'm aware of that has had that kind of success.?” At a Manhattan press conference held to announce a new Rainbow/PUSH project, Jackson refused to comment on his old friend's allegations of possible racketeering.
10/26/2002 Colorado Lieutenant Governor Joe Rogers (then only 38) had been keeping a low profile since the 8/2002 primary, when he finished last in a 4-way race to become the GOP nominee in the new 7th Congressional District. And that low profile was just the way the nation's highest-ranking elected Black state executive wanted to keep it as he moved into his final 2 months in office. First-year problems ranged from a dispute over a costly vehicle that Rogers hoped to acquire for his office to to flowers and balloons for Secretary of State Vikki Buckley's funeral. The following year, state lawmakers sent Owens a bill that allowed him and all future candidates for Governor to pick their own running mates. Rogers saw the writing on the wall and asked the Governor to let him veto the bill, Governor Owens refused. More problems surfaced for Rogers this year with reports he had spent tax dollars on campaign telephones in his Capitol office, a cellular phone for his wife and a news videotape of a potential Republican Party rival. State auditors rapped his office on the knuckles for ?“lax accounting practices, significant staff turnover, poor management oversight and errors in the recording and reporting of expenditures.?” If Rogers had a political future, no one was sure what it was. ?“You either have to be a populist with support of the people or a close friend of the power structure,?” said political consultant and pollster Floyd Cirui. ?“He (Rogers) is neither. He has managed to work himself out of a great political career.?”
10/26/2002 Amr Moussa the Arab League Chief will visit Libya within 24 hours hoping to persuade Col. Moammar Gadhafi's government to reconsider its decision to withdraw from the pan-Arab organization. Libya announced on 10/24/2002 it was pulling out of the 22-member league, citing its ?“inefficiency?”in dealing with the crises over Iraq and the Palestinians. Moussa was hopeful that Libya would reconsider its decision. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher also urged Libya to reconsider its move. Gadhafi had been sharply critical of an Arab League initiative offering peace to Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from occupied Arab territories. After the initiative was formalized at a summit in Beirut, Lebanon, earlier this year, Gadhafi publicly urged the ?“the Arab street?” to distance itself from ?“crippled?” Mideast regimes and called on the League to hold an emergency summit to cancel the Beirut initiative. Gadhafi had increasingly turned his attention toward Africa in recent years after African countries decided to break the UN flights embargo imposed on Libya in connection with the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner. Arab states disappointed Gadhafi by continuing to observe the embargo until the UN suspended it in 1999. Gadhafi then became a driving force behind the new African Union in 7/2002 in South Africa.
10/26/2002 After Jesse Jackson and other speakers denounced the Bush administration's Iraq policies and demanded a revolt at the ballot box to promote peace, tens of thousands of anti-war protesters circled the White House. The protest coincided with anti-war demonstrations from Augusta, Maine, to San Francisco and abroad from Rome and Berlin to Tokyo to San Juan, Puerto Rico and Mexico City. In Washington and many of the other demonstrations, protesters added complaints about US policy toward the Palestinians.
10/26/2002 West African Ministers agreed to send 2,000 troops to Ivory Coast to replace more than 1,000 French troops deployed along a line that cut through the center of the country, monitoring a week-old truce that halted fighting between government and rebel forces in this former French colony. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, Secretary-General of the Economic Community of West African States, also said talks were expected early next week between the government and rebels, who had seized half the country since launching a failed coup attempt on 9/19/2002. The conflict erupted with the attempted coup by a group of about 800 soldiers. Chambas said the West African forces would start replacing the French troops in 2 weeks. Benin, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Togo and Senegal had pledged troops. Rebels were based in Bouake, Ivory Coast's 2nd largest city and in Korhogo, a northern opposition stronghold.
10/26/2003 The words of the old rock ?‘n?’ roll song, ?“I'm going to Kansas City!,?” were ringing true for a growing number of American businesses moving to this revitalized center of telecommunications, banking, finance and service. One person who was enthusiastic about helping to energize the city?’s downtown, build a new airport and completely revamp the old airport was Wayne A. Cauthen, the Black City Manager for the largest city in Missouri. ?“We want to get people to stay downtown other than to work,?” said Cauthen, former Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Denver, CO. Also a former Administrator for the Space Launch programs at Martin Marietta, Cauthen supported building a downtown sports arena in Kansas City and enhancing the City Market. Other plans included creating rapid bus or light-rail transportation between Downtown and Crown Center. ?“Wayne brings breadth and depth of experience in big city government that I think will be a great match for Kansas City,?” said Mayor Kay Barnes.
10/26/2003 A children's choir and a military band greeted the return of what scholars believed was a royal mummy, possibly Ramses I, that was looted from a tomb and smuggled out of Egypt by a Canadian doctor nearly 150 years ago. The Michael Carlos Museum at Emory U in Atlanta, which bought the mummy 3 years ago from a museum in Ontario, returned the relic after determining that it might be the founder of the 19th Dynasty and grandfather of Ramses II. Zahi Hawas, head of Egypt?’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that it was uncertain that the mummy was Ramses I, but that the return was ?“a great, civilized gesture?” by the Emory museum. The mummy was taken, he said, along with other artifacts from the tomb of Ramses I in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. Other experts, including Emily Teeter, curator of Egyptian antiquities at the Oriental Institute of the U of Chicago, had said there was no hard evidence that the returned mummy was Ramses. Without a DNA match, scholars had relied on other evidence to identify the mummy. Many cite the position of the mummy's arms: crossed high over his chest in a fashion reserved for royal mummies at the time of Ramses' death. Egyptian antiquity officials had always rejected DNA tests on mummies of pharaohs. Mr. Hawas contended that such tests were unreliable. He said the mummy would be displayed next year at the Luxor Museum in southern Egypt.
10/27/1862 The 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Regiment before being mustered into service were the 1st to engage Confederates troops at Island Mound, Missouri, the Regiment was organized in 8/1862, it was officially mustered into service 1/13/1863 and later redesignated as the 79th US Colored Infantry Regiment. Most of the enlisted men were ex-slaves from Arkansas and Missouri.
10/27/1891 Philip B. Downing, invented the street letter box and was awarded patent # 462,093.
10/27/1891 Charles H. Garvin, will become a medical doctor and the 1st Black physician commissioned by the US Army in WW I, was born in Jacksonville, FL.
10/27/1917 Oliver Reginald Tambo, will be among the founding members of the ANC Youth League (ANC YL - 1944), will become its 1st National Secretary, he will be elected President of the Transvaal ANCYL (1948), National Vice-President (1949) and will become the President of the South African - African National Congress (ANC - 1969-91), was born in Mbizana, Mpondoland, East Cape (d: 4/24/1993 at age 75).
10/27/1947 The Hindu Maharajah of Kashmir signed the Instrument of Accession to join India after guerilla troops entered the majority Muslim region from Pakistan. The accession was not recognized by Pakistan and war with India ensued (See: 1/1/1949)
10/27/1948 Judah Leon Magnes, American founder of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, died at age 71 (b: 7/5/1877).
10/27/1954 B.O. Davis Jr. became the 1st Black-American general in the U.S. Air Force, he was designated by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
10/27/1971 The Republic of the Congo became the Republic of Zaire.
10/27/1979 St Vincent & the Grenadines became independent of Great Britain.
10/27/1978 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their progress toward achieving a Middle East accord.
10/27/1981 Andrew Young former US UN Ambassador, was elected Mayor of Atlanta, GA.
10/27/1991 A Glendale, Colorado group established Forum Capital Management Corp., the country?’s 1st minority-managed institutional money management fund. They hoped to lure big institutional pension funds and immediately won $15 million in assets.
10/27/1997 Rattled by Asia?’s currency crisis, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummets 554 points for its biggest point loss ever. Trading on US stock markets was suspended.
10/27/1998 Brazilian President Francisco Cardozo announced an austerity plan of $80 billion in tax increases and spending cuts over 3 years in order to secure an IMF assistance package.
10/27/2002 Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rose from a shoeshine boy to union firebrand to the next President of Latin America's largest nation, celebrated a stunning electoral victory, but he had a world of problems to confront in Brazil. Silva became the 1st leftist elected President of Brazil, beating ruling party candidate Jose Serra with 61% of the vote in a runoff. Thousands of people thronged the streets of Sao Paulo, waving the red flags of Silva's Workers Party to the boom of fireworks and the throbbing of live music. Some revelers also hoisted the hammer-and-sickle flag of the Communist Party, which backed Silva. But so did the rightist party of Silva's running mate, Jose Alencar. The country's bankers and industrialists associations were among those welcoming Silva's victory. Silva, who dropped out of school after the 5th grade, will face enormous challenges after his 1/1/2003 inauguration. He had to try to pull more than 50 million Brazilians from poverty, save the world's 9th-largest economy from recession, create new jobs and increase housing. At the same time, he must maintain fiscal responsibility and the confidence of Brazil's creditors and investors. Brazil's last leftist President was Joao Goulart, a Vice President who assumed power in 1961 when the centrist President resigned. Goulart served 2 1/2 years and was deposed by a right-wing military coup.
10/27/2003 Walter Edward Washington, the great-grandson of a slave who became the 1st elected Mayor of the nation's capitol since the Civil War, died, he was 88. Washington 1st came to the nation's capitol to attend Howard U, earning a Bachelor's Degree in 1938 and a law degree in 1948. He started as an intern at the National Capitol Housing Authority but left in 1966 to serve as Director of the NYC Housing Authority. Washington returned a year later to accept president Lyndon B. Johnson's appointment as Mayor-Commissioner of the District of Columbia by in late 1967. Nixon reappointed Washington twice and when Congress approved home rule for the District, he ran for Mayor in the 1974 election. He defeated Clifford Alexander to become the city's 1st elected Mayor in 104 years. His moderate style helped ease the city's transition from federal control to limited autonomy. When he left office, the District had a $40 million surplus. He lost his 1978 re-election bid to fellow Democrat Marion Barry in a primary. After leaving office, Washington practiced law. In the 1980s he helped get the National Museum of African Art placed on the National Mall and later worked to establish the City Museum of Washington, D.C., which opened in 2003, a reality (b: Dawson, GA) .
10/27/2003 Sao Tome and Nigeria received bids of up to US$123 million (?‡104 million) for exploration rights in offshore oil fields they jointly own. The 2 countries invited bids 6 months ago for 9 blocs in a Joint Development Zone in the Gulf of Guinea, one of Africa's most active oil exploration areas. The zone was believed to hold at least 6 billion barrels of oil. Details of the bids were not announced, but state radio Radio Nacional de Sao Tome said the largest offer came from ChevronTexaco, the US oil giant offered US$123 million for bloc 9, it reported. Offers above the minimum sale price of US$30 million (?‡25.5 million) were received for the other 7 fields, the radio said. The Joint Exploration Authority, comprising officials from Sao Tome and Nigeria, was due to announce in 2 weeks' time what companies won the exploration rights. Under the terms of the international auction, bidders had to provide technical guarantees they would be able to extract the oil from the deepwater fields. Under the joint exploration agreement, Sao Tome would get 40% of the oil revenue while Nigeria would take 60%. Nigeria was currently negotiating a military pact with Sao Tome. The Sao Tome Parliament had established an oversight committee to monitor how the oil revenue was used as part of an effort to avoid corruption.
10/28/1844 Moses Jacob Ezekiel, future Jewish-American Confederate soldier and world famous sculptor, was born in Richmond, VA.( d: 3/27/1917)
10/28/1862 The 1st engagement for Black-American troops in the Civil War, The First Kansas Colored Volunteers repulsed and drove off a superior force of rebels at Island Mound, MO.
10/28/1873 Patrick Francis Healy, became President of Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic University in the United States and became the 1st Black-American President of a predominantly White university in the US (See: 2/7/1834 and 1/10/1910).
10/28/1994 Burma?’s Aung San Suu Kyi had a 2nd meeting with the State Law and Order Restoration Council?’s (SLORC) General Khin Nyunt and 2 other military officials. The state media reported that talks were ?“frank and cordial?” and covered political and economic situations.
10/28/1998 Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was immune from prosecution in British courts, so ruled the High Court in London (however, the House of Lord overturned the decision, saying Pinochet?’s arrest could stand).
10/28/1999 A struggle to control the casino-rich Saginaw Chippewa American Indian tribe had led to a federal lawsuit, heard today, that could have a wide impact on Indian tribes across the country. The case pitted a faction of the Saginaw Chippewa of Mount Pleasant, Mich., against the US Department of the Interior. The issue: When can the federal government intervene in internal Indian affairs? In 8/19999 Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover, who ran the Bureau of Indian Affairs, took sides in a tribal council election dispute and ordered that the winners of a primary election, whose victory had been invalidated by the incumbents, be allowed to take office. The deposed council members filed suit in US district court in Bay City, Mich., claiming that the federal government did not have the authority to intervene. In addition, plaintiffs claim that the case was a matter reserved for the tribal, not federal, courts. Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan v. Gover, No. 99cv1032BC (See: 8/10/1999).
10/28/2001 Al Sharpton, the NYC civil rights activist, began a 3-day visit to Israel to show solidarity with terror victims and to appeal to religious leaders to stop Mideast violence. On 10/29, he was scheduled to meet Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, dine with Jewish religious leaders and visit classmates of victims of a 6/1/01 suicide bomb attack on a Tel Aviv disco, which killed 21 young partygoers. ?“He?’s got a pretty full schedule meeting families of terror victims,?” Sharpton's spokeswoman Rachel Noerdlinger said. She added that for the moment his itinerary was focused on Israeli victims but Palestinians could also come on to the agenda. ?“We're not closing the door to the other side,?” Noerdlinger said.
10/28/2001 The US delegation which was visiting Sudan, led by Charles Schneider, the Deputy US Secretary of State for African Affairs, intensified its talks with the Sudanese parties in conflict, government and opposition, at a time of strong predictions that Washington was preparing a working plan for a peaceful resolution in Sudan based on the need to merge and coordinate between both the IGAD (Inter-Governmental Authority on Development) and a joint (Egyptian-Libyan) initiative.
10/28/2001 South Africa's leading White opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, which was created 16 months ago with the merger of the New National Party, the party that created apartheid, and its stronger rival, the Democratic Party, collapsed as its bickering leaders said they could no longer work together to challenge the overwhelming dominance of the governing African National Congress (ANC). The 2 parties joined forces to focus on building support among Blacks, who made up 78% of the population and still overwhelmingly support the ANC. The New National Party was already popular among mixed-race voters in the Western Cape. The merger was hailed as an effort to transcend this nation's racially polarized politics. In local elections last year, the Democratic Alliance won about 5% of the vote in the Black communities of Soweto and Alexandra, surpassing the share won there by the Inkhata Freedom Party, the 2nd-largest Black party. Together, the merged parties held 66 seats in Parliament, about 15% of the total. In the 1999 national elections, the New National Party finished with only about 7% of the vote, down from 20% in 1994, as its core group of supporters, White Afrikaners, jumped ship for the Democratic Party, that won nearly 10& of the vote, up from 1.7% in 1994. The ANC snared 66% of the vote.
10/28/2001 On the most commonplace of diplomatic missions, Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao, 58, was touring Moscow, London, Paris, Berlin and Madrid for handshakes with Presidents, Prime Ministers and business titans. As he made the trip, which began in Russia and continued to Britain, his every word was scrutinized and not only in Washington and other foreign capitals, but also at home. That was because Mr. Hu, appeared virtually certain to take over as China's supreme leader in the next 18 months and, if he kept his cards in order, he would lead the world's most populous country for 10 years. He was expected to succeed Jiang Zemin, who was 75 and slated for retirement as head of the Communist Party in the fall of 2002 and then as President that winter. His public unveiling had been steady and deliberate. He gained his 1st diplomatic experience in the last few years, visiting certain African nations, Japan and South Korea. In 1999 he became Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, allowing him to start cultivating ties with the military. Born in 12/1942, Mr. Hu was a student of hydroelectric engineering at the prestigious Qinghua University in Beijing in the 1960's.
10/28/2002 US Representatives Charles Rangel (D-NY) and J.C. Watts (R-OK) tied hands down, for the most pork programs, but how did your favorite (or most disliked) Black politician act during the 107th Congress. The Black members of the US Congress numbered just 38 out of 435, but were they living up to your standards? Did those elected representatives vote on issues of concern to Black America or to themselves, from electoral reform, to education, healthcare to welfare. And how were their attendance records and the amount of soft money their campaigns received? Overall the voting record for members of the Democratic Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), excluding J.C. Watts, showed they failed on Education, Taxes and Election Reform and passed on Welfare and Human Rights.
10/28/2002 Warring factions in Somalia signed a cease-fire in Kenya to try to end a decade of bloodshed. Diplomats called the accord the most inclusive peace deal ever signed by the fractious militia bosses who flourished in the chaos of civil war. ?“Somali faction leaders have recognized reality,?” Hassan Abshir Farah, Prime Minister of the shaky Transitional National Government, said. Diplomats from Ethiopia, Djibouti, Egypt the EU, the US and Italy, signed the accord as witnesses. The accord's main points were a cease-fire, a commitment to set up a federal constitution, better access for humanitarian agencies and commitments to fighting terrorism and pursuing reconciliation.
10/28/2002 Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto unleashed a scathing attack against President Pervez Musharraf, accusing him of manipulating this month's parliamentary elections by paving the way for fundamentalist gains in the provinces and pushing his own party, while blocking more mainstream ones such as her Pakistan Peoples Party and the Muslim League. Bhutto said the signal she was getting from US officials on the outcome, which left the pro-Musharraf Quaid-e-Azam faction of the Pakistan Muslim League with the most seats but not enough for a parliamentary majority, was that ?“while they did not endorse the elections, they did not condemn them as rigged.?” She explained that while the war on terrorism was ongoing, Bush administration officials ?“still have too much on their plate.?” She warned, however, that the outcome of the election was ?“a slap in the face of transition to civilian rule?” 3 years after Musharraf took power.
10/28/2003 The government of St Kitts restated its backing for Trinidad's capitol, Port-of-Spain as the future headquarters of the world?’s largest free trade zone despite Florida's lobbying efforts earlier this month to gain support for Miami. St. Kitts won't stray from the 15-member Caribbean Community position that Trinidad should be the permanent Secretariat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, government spokesman Erasmus Williams said. But if Port-of-Spain eventually lost out, St. Kitts would reconsider Miami, he said. Trinidad and St. Kitts belonged to the Caribbean Community and the FTAA, which had yet to go online. A team of FL. officials visited St. Kitts for a 3-day lobbying effort began 10/7/03. St. Kitts' choice to support Trinidad did not shock Jorge Arrizurieta, who led the lobbying effort and was Executive Director of the Florida FTAA Inc.
10/28/2003 Dominican Republic President Hipolito Mejia began steps to increased privatization of the country's electric companies in an effort to end power outages that had become part of daily life for many Dominicans. A presidential decree, prohibited the government from holding more than 25% of any electrical generation or distribution company. Currently, the law said the government must own 50% of such companies, but a government-appointed commission was to present new legislation to Congress within 90 days, said Jaime Aristy Escuder, a Finance Adviser in Mejia's administration. Congress was expected to pass the bill, with the majority of legislators in both the Senate and the lower house coming from Mejia's political party.
10/29/1187 The 3rd Crusade on the Muslim world was proclaimed by Pope Gregory VIII (d. 1187), western enthusiasm for the plan was widespread and 3 major European monarchs enlisted in its ranks. The kings and their numerous followers constituted the largest Crusading force that had taken the field since 1095, but the outcome of all that effort was meager. Barbarossa died in Anatolia while on his way to the Holy Land, and most of his army returned to Germany immediately. Both Philip Augustus and Richard the Lion-Heart reached Palestine with their armies intact, they were unable to recapture Jerusalem or much of the former territory of the Latin Kingdom. They did succeed, however, in wresting from Saladin control of a chain of cities along the Mediterranean coast. By 10/1192, Richard finally left Palestine, the Latin Kingdom had been reconstituted but much smaller than the original kingdom and considerably weaker militarily and economically, the 2nd kingdom eked out a precarious existence for another century (See: 11/27/1015, 5/1144(?), 9/1145(?), 3/1146(?), 12/1219(?), 6/1228, 5/1244(?), 9/1270 and 10/1270(?)).
10/29/1665 The Bakongo at the Battle of Mbwila (also spelled Ambuila) in Angola were defeated by the Portuguese, which marked the end of the Kongo Kingdom as a unified power. By the 18th century, Kongo had been transformed from a unitary state into a number of smaller entities that recognized the King but for all practical purposes were independent. Fragmented though they were, these Kongo states continued to resist Portuguese encroachments. Although they were never again as significant as during Angola's early days, the Bakongo played an important role in the nationalist and independence struggles of the 20th century (See: 1660's).
10/29/1937 At least 26% of Black-American males were unemployed on this date during the Great Depression which began in 1929.
10/29/1948 Israel?’s 1st Agricultural Minister, Aharon Cizling, reacted to a reported massacre in the Palestinian town of Al-Dawayima, saying in a government cabinet meeting, ?“But now Jews, too, have behaved like Nazis and my entire being has been shaken
... Obviously we have to conceal these actions from the public and I agree that we should not even reveal that were investigating them. But they must be investigated.?”
10/29/1956 During the Suez Canal crisis, Israel launched an invasion of Egypt?’s Sinai Peninsula.
10/29/1966 The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded.
10/29/1969 Johnson Products Company of Chicago, IL, founded by George Johnson in 1954 became the largest Black-American hair-care products manufacturer, was incorporated and in 1971, it will become the 1st Black-American owned company listed on the American Stock Exchange (10/29/1981).
10/29/1969 Racial segregation in schools had to end at once and that unitary school systems were required so ruled the US Supreme Court.
10/29/1981 William Otis Walker, publisher of the "Cleveland Call & Post," who in 1963 became the Black-American to hold a post in the Ohio Cabinet and was National Chairman for "Black Republicans for Reagan and Bush" in 1980, died at the age of 85.
10/29/1981 Johnson Products Company of Chicago, IL, founded by George Johnson in 1954 the largest Black-American hair-care products manufacturer became the 1st Black-American owned company listed on the American Stock Exchange (See: 10/29/1969).
10/29/1998 South Africa?’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission condemned both apartheid and violence committed by the African National Congress (ANC).
10/29/1998 For the 1st time in the history of spaceflight, the launch commentator, Lisa Malone; the ascent commentator, Eileen Hawley; flight director, Linda Hamm; CapCom (the communicator between Mission Control and the crew), Susan Still and Chiaki Mukai, PhD., 1st Japanese female in space and astronaut were all women, nearly 2/3's of the flight control team for STS-95, Discovery, were women over the 8 day period.
10/29/2001 US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, US Trade Representative Ambassador Robert B. Zoellick, Secretary of Commerce Donald L. Evans and Secretary of the Treasury Paul H. O'Neill co-chaired the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) 2 day Forum in the Loy Henderson Conference Room at the Department of State. Secretary Powell addressed the Forum along with his Senegalese counterpart, Cheikh Tidiane Gadio. In 5/2000, the African Growth and Opportunity Act envisioned tangible incentives for African countries to continue their efforts to open their economies and build free markets and called for a ministerial-level meeting to continue the dialogue. The Forum host traded, finance and commerce ministers from 35 eligible sub-Saharan African countries. The Forum discussions ranged from strengthening commercial linkages to sound financial policies to wrestling the HIV/AIDS pandemic to implementation of the Act and strategies to expand trade (See: 10/30/2001).
10/29/2001 As many as 20,000 refugees from across the world, cleared to come to the US to escape persecution in their homelands, had their arrivals delayed indefinitely in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks. The temporary moratorium on refugee admissions resulted from both concerns about security and the fact that a White House consumed by its fight against terrorism, here and in Afghanistan, had not issued its annual refugee quota. For now, the nation's door remained closed to refugees, including children escaping civil war in Sierra Leone, women fleeing the Taliban and Iraqis fleeing the regime of Saddam Hussein, a family of 14 from Ethiopia, members of the Oromo ethnic minority group who lived in a refugee camp in Kenya since 5/1996, a family of Armenian Christians from Iran, including a woman who was terminally ill and a Jewish family from Ukraine all stuck waiting for word from Washington. Refugee resettlement groups said many of these people had been longtime residents of disease-prone, star-crossed refugee camps. The annual quota for refugees coming into the US ha declined steadily for most of the last decade. In the 2001 fiscal year the refugee cap was set at 80,000; about 68,000 of them made it in. For the 2002 fiscal year, the State Department had proposed a ceiling of 70,000, most of them to come from Africa, countries in what was the Soviet Union and Central and South Asia.
10/29/2001 A group of American Muslim organizations called for the US to halt it bombing campaign in Afghanistan and instead develop ?“a more effective and long-term policy?” to counter terrorism. The document was signed by 15 groups, primarily small ones, but including 2 prominent organizations, the Council on American- Islamic Relations and the Islamic Circle of North America. The statement was posted on the IslamiCity.com Web site. But in a sign that the bombing had produced differences in opinion among Muslim organizations, several major groups did not sign the statement, among them were the American Muslim Council, Islamic Society of North America and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Aly R. Abuzaakouk, the American Muslim Council's Executive Director, said the organization stood by a statement it made on 10/8, expressing support for the Bush administration's campaign against terrorism and its pledge to avoid civilian casualties.
10/29/2001 Somalia's fledgling government lost a no-confidence vote, ending the tenure of the country's Prime Minister, Ali Khalif Galaydh and his cabinet after just 13 months. The government remained in place until President Abdikassim Salad Hassan could nominate a new PM, who would have 30 days to appoint a cabinet. Although the PM led the government, Mr. Abdiqasim, who was the Head of State and the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, held the real political power.
10/29/2001 US Secretary of State Colin Powell praised Kenya for helping the US in the war on terrorism. Meeting with Kenya's Foreign Minister, Chris Obure, Powell noted that many Kenyans were victims by Osama bin Laden's terror in 1998, when bin Laden's al-Qaeda network blew up 2 American embassies in Nairobi and in neighboring Tanzania. 246 Kenyans and 12 Americans were killed and hundreds more wounded, Powell said, noting that bin Laden was ?“willing to kill so many innocent people of another nation?” in order to go after the American embassy. ?“That is why we are so pleased that Kenya has joined with us in this campaign as part of our coalition,'?” Powell said. The 2 also discussed efforts to promote peace in the Sudan, where a brutal civil war had raged for years, and in Somalia. US President George W. Bush had appointed former Republican Senator Jack Danforth as a Special Envoy to the Sudan earlier this fall, before the 9/11 attacks, and Danforth was scheduled to visit Nairobi soon, Obure noted. Obure said his country ?“shares and fully understands the pain an anguish inflicted upon the people of this great nation.?”
10/29/2002 Black were becoming less likely to identify themselves as Democrats and gave Republican Secretary of State Colin L. Powell a higher approval rating than civil rights icon Jesse L. Jackson, according to an opinion poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The survey also bolstered previous findings that a majority of Blacks preferred school vouchers to other education improvement plans, was an indication of changing attitudes in a community that had long identified overwhelmingly with the Democratic Party and its agenda. The survey's findings came at a time when Black members of Congress were saying they would rather not be identified solely as ?“Black leaders?” and as Black voters were diversifying in opinion and national origin. The shift in Black attitudes was not likely to be reflected in midterm elections, said David A. Bositis, who directed the survey, because Blacks 36 and younger, who were driving the change in opinion, vote in far fewer numbers than those 50 or older. Powell's 73% approval rating placed him 2nd only to former President Clinton in the survey. Vice President Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice were not highly rated or well known among Blacks, Bositis said.
10/29/2002 Chang-Lin Tien, who was the Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, (1990 - 97) and was the 1st Asian-American to head a major US university, was a engineering professor. An expert on thermal science, Tien helped developed the insulating tiles for the space shuttle and worked on the Saturn rocket boosters used in the space program. In 1999, the International Astronomical Union renamed an asteroid Tienchanglin in his honor. Tien also was an outspoken supporter of affirmative action before and after UC's governing board of regents dropped race-based admissions in 1995. Tien fled Japanese troops during WW II, escaping with his family to Shanghai. In 1949, after civil war put Chinese communists in control, they fled again, to Taiwan. In 1956, Tien traveled to Kentucky to get his master's degree at the University of Louisville. He never forgot the racial discrimination he encountered in the South in the 1950s. In a 1990 interview with The Associated Press, he recalled standing in confusion before water fountains labeled ?“whites only?” and ?“colored.?” Which one, he wondered, was for him? He suffered a stroke after surgery for a brain tumor 2 years ago. Tien died at age 67 on this date (b: 7/24/1935, Wuhan, China).
10/29/2003 African airlines should form alliances to compete with European, American and Asian carriers for the profitable long-haul routes in and out of the continent, said Christian Folly-Kossi, Secretary General of the African Airlines Association. Together, African carriers ?“give themselves a better competitive edge and more bargaining power with major global (alliances),'?” Folly-Kossi told industry executives meeting in Nairobi. Alliances would also likely give airlines the ability to buy fuel, spare parts and insurance at lower rates, he said. The result would be more profitable airlines, a development that would lead to better airports in Africa, where often run-down facilities offer few amenities available in Western airports, he said. According to the 45-member Association, only 9 African airlines, among them Egypt Air, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and South Africa Airways, were managing to compete with international airlines for long-haul business.
10/29/2003 Black Americans had narrowed the ?“wealth gap?” with the rest of the country, although they still lagged far behind the nationwide average, according to a study. Boosted by a rising rate of homeownership, the net wealth of the typical Black household increased from $5,919 in 1989 to $19,010 in 2001, according to Federal Reserve data analyzed by the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit advocacy group. That increase of 221% far outstrips the 33% increase posted by all US households during the same period, the Consumer Federation noted. But Black households still trailed the nationwide median of $86,100 in 2001, the group said. Despite the persistent gap in net wealth, defined as financial and property assets minus mortgages and other debts, the increase was significant as it showed that more Black families were following good financial habits, said Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation.
10/29/2003 After months of delays, Johannes Coenrad Smit, the 1st witness was called in the treason trial of a group of White extremists accused of trying to overthrow the government, a former member who testified they had plotted to drive Blacks and Indians out of South Africa. Smit told the court that the group had tried to enlist the help of the civilian wing of the South African National Defense Force, known as the commandos, the SAPress Assn reported. Twenty-two men, members of the Boeremag, or Farmer's Force, were accused of conspiring to kill off South Africa's Black majority or drive them from the country so they could set up their own state. The men 1st appeared at Pretoria's Palace of Justice in 5/03, but testimony was repeatedly delayed as the accused raised objections about their treatment, legal representation and the court's jurisdiction. The government originally charged 23 men with 42 charges, including high treason, murder, attempted murder, terrorism and the illegal possession of weapons. However, one had since pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 12 years in prison. They were charged in the murder of Claudia Mokone, who was killed in a bomb blast in Soweto in 10/2002. Prosecutors said the group also conspired to kill Nelson Mandela while he was President, plotting to blow up his car as he traveled to a public event. The plot failed when Mandela traveled by helicopter instead.
10/30/1912 Gordon Parks, Sr., future photographer, writer and film director, was born in Fort Scott, KS.
10/30/1933 Wallace Deen Muhammad, future successor to his father, Elijah Muhammad (2/25/ 1975), as the leader of a more liberalized Nation of Islam, was born in Hamtramck, NJ.
10/30/1954 The US Defense Department announced that all units in the armed forces were now integrated an announcement that came 6 years after President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981.
10/30/1966 Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, students at a California college, created the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.
10/30/1979 Dr. Richard Arrington, a former zoologist, who entered politics after a young Black woman was shot in the back by a White policeman, was elected the 1st Black Mayor of Birmingham, AL (1979-99).
10/30/1989 BET Holding, Inc, became the 1st Black-owned company traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
10/30/1989 Frank Mingo, CEO of the Mingo Group, along with D. Parke Gibson, Barbara Proctor of Proctor and Gardner and Tom Burrell of Burrell Advertising became one of the pioneering advertising executives who specialized in targeting Black-American consumers, died in NYC.
10/30/1991 Led by President Robert L. Johnson, BET Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Black Entertainment Television, sold 4.2 million shares of stock in an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange and became the 1st Black-American company listed on the "Big Board."
10/30/2001 The majority of Arabs in the US were not Muslims, they were Syrian and Lebanese Christians. According to the Arab-American Institute, 77% of Arabs in America were Christians and only 23% practice Islam. Another little known fact further complicated matters: the majority of American-Muslims were not Arabs. Statistics from the Council on American-Islamic Relations revealed that most Muslims in the US were of African or South Asian descent, only 25% were Arab (See: 9/17/2001, 9/20/2001, 10/1/ 2001, 10/30/2001).
10/30/2001 That the victims of the new racial profiling were being represented by the same firm, Relman & Associates, that brought Black-Americans some of the most notable anti-discrimination class action victories in recent history was no coincidence. The potential for a broad alliance against arbitrary and unfounded racial profiling had never been greater. But whether the climate of racial division between Blacks and Arabs would give way to such a coalition remained to be seen. Poll results aside, some Middle Eastern Americans and others singled out because they looked like Arabs, had found that more Black-Americans seemed supportive than suspicious. According to Kelli Evans and Christy Lopez, when one of their clients finally managed to board a flight, he received a sympathetic reception from a Black flight attendant in 1st class, who expressed his empathy by offering the beleaguered coach passenger some champagne (See: 9/17/2001, 9/20/2001, 10/1/ 2001, 10/30/2001).
10/30/2001 A York, PA. grand jury reviewing the fatal shootings during the city's 1969 race riots recommended another set of murder charges, this time against 2 Back men in the slaying of a White police officer, prosecutors said. The grand jury had charged 11 people with murder in the last 5 months in connection with the riots that left 2 people dead, 1 Black and 1 White, more than 60 injured and a entire city blocks burned. Stephen Freeland, 49, who was serving a 7 - 14-year prison sentence on a drug conviction, and Leon Wright, 53, were charged with 1st - and 2nd -degree murder in the death of rookie Officer Henry Schaad, 22. Nine White men, including Mayor Charlie Robertson, who was a police officer at the time of the riots, were charged earlier this year with killing Lillie Belle Allen, 27, of Aiken, SC, a Black woman (See: 7/2 and 21/2001).
10/30/2001 Hopes that US President George W. Bush might announce more debt relief and aid for Africa, especially for the fight against AIDS, evaporated here as Bush and top officials instead lectured Ministers from more than 40 sub-Saharan nations on terrorism and the virtues of free trade and economic liberalisation. The Ministers, who also had expressed hope of hearing new offers of expanded trade preferences beyond those provided under last year's Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), had to content themselves with a new, 200-million-dollar government ''facility'' to promote and insure US investment in Africa, a boon that would chiefly benefit US corporations. ?“This really was a disappointment,?” one Minister from southern Africa told IPS after the meeting, the 1st US-Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Co-operation Forum, a new mechanism established under AGOA.
While trade with a handful of non-oil-producing African nations had jumped since AGOA took effect, the Act had come under strong criticism from independent groups as well as some governments. Development groups in the US had attacked AGOA as inadequate for Africa's needs. A statement released on 10/29 by Africa Action, Oxfam International and ActionAID called specifically for the cancellation of the more than $300 billion in Africa's external debt; support for Africa's positions at the WTO; a major expansion of exports eligible for duty-free treatment under AGOA; a lifting of the economic conditions for eligibility and a sharp increase in US development aid. Under current administration proposals, bilateral aid to Africa would shrink by about $5 million next year, from about $795 million this year (See: 10/29/2001).
10/30/2001 Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's, 77, government said it was ready to meet the European Union's (EU) demand for discussions on its human rights record. EU foreign ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, decided to invoke Article 96 of the EU's Cotonou Agreement with African, Caribbean and Pacific nations, which allowed them to demand talks with any signatory state deemed to have failed to respect democratic principles and the rule of law. ?“Zimbabwe is ready for the consultations, has been ready for the consultation since June and our position on the issue is clear,?” Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge told Zimbabwe state media. But while the government was ready for dialogue, he said, it remained firm on its rejection of ultimatums on the issue of allowing observers to monitor Presidential Elections due by 4/2002 and on various alleged abuses. The EU had been exasperated by what it saw as Mugabe's failure to keep promises made in Nigeria last month to end his supporters' violent invasions of white-owned farms.
10/30/2002 Harry Belafonte?’s vicious attack on US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had started to reap consequences, with hordes of protestors turning against him. And, as a result, Belafonte?’s honor at a recent Africare gala was marred by protestors from his fellow Blacks. Robert Woodson, founder of the conservative National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, led a group in a protest outside the Washington Hilton, where the event was taking place. Woodson said of the protest, ?“ (It was) to express our outrage that this self-appointed king of Black America, who is nothing but a bad calypso singer, feels qualified to sit in judgement of the Secretary of State and the National Security Adviser (See: 10/20/2002).?”
10/30/2002 For a 2nd night, crowds of Haitian-Americans waived flags and held signs reading ?“Free Haitians Now?” outside the Miami headquarters of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, demanding that the 200 Haitians being detained should be treated like other who reach US soil. Unlike Cubans who reach dry land, Haitian immigrants usually were denied asylum in the US and sent back home. The Bush administration quietly changed its detention policy on Haitian refugees in 12/2001 to discourage a feared mass exodus from the impoverished country. Before the change, Haitian immigrants applying for asylum were released into the community while their petitions were processed. They were now being kept in immigration custody. Barbara Gonzalez, an INS spokeswoman in Miami, declined to say whether any of the immigrants had asked for political asylum. Out of 730 immigrants currently held at the agency?’s Krome Detention Center, 287 were Haitians, she said.
10/30/2002 Keith Roberts and Rocco Gotti, two 30-something White conservative businessmen co-founded a group calling itself Citizens Opposed to Racism and Discrimination (CORAD)were describing the impetus behind their CD, Racism Exposed, which has so far received a rave review in The Washington Times, praise from the Minnesota GOP. The Republican National Committee even considered giving CORAD funds to continue its music project. Not surprisingly, VIBE, XXL and The Source had not come knocking. CORAD?’s right wing rap was born in 1999. The CD included tracks such as ?“Gun Control is Racist,?” ?“Liberal Democrats are Racist?” and ?“Liberal Democrat Education is Wack.?” CORAD's theme was that Blacks had been enslaved by a Democratic Party that took them for granted was ever present. The Black Republican Coalition's President Lucky Rosenbloom applauded CORAD ?“for having the guts to stand up and tell the truth.?” But, he added, ?“I don't want two white Republicans coming into the black community and telling us what's good for us.?” Fortunately or unfortunately it appeared that many members of CORAD's target audience didn't believe the hype. CORAD's all but silent online message boards contained a few telling posts, namely one calling for the removal of Ronald Reagan's picture. CORAD's Web site took propaganda to a whole new level by rehashing historical platitudes. Interestingly, there was no attempt to extend this ?“Republicans are the true champions of civil rights?” mantra beyond the 1960s. CORAD made no mention of Dixiecrats, the Republicans' southern strategy or ensuing electoral realignments. That might have diluted the message or cast doubts on CORAD's position. One wondered how effective an antiracist movement one could have without the support of any victims of racism, especially given that CORAD claimed to be ?“America's objective defender of minorities, Blacks and women and children.?” In the end, though, CORAD's game was to peddle an old conservative message to Black voters through a new medium and a pretense of genuine antiracism. And as the Coleman campaign Fears were that CORAD?’s, the hyper-negative ads might only backfire and damage the Republican candidate(s) they claimed to support. That said, Democrats would do well to pay attention to the new presence in its backyard rather than taking its Black Democratic base for granted.
10/30/2003 Japanese space agency, known as JAXA, officials, already forced to temporarily shut down one satellite, said they had lost contact with a 2nd satellite, the Midori 2, that may have been affected by an electromagnetic storm caused by the largest solar flare observed in decades. Midori 2 was launched in 12/2002 and served as an environmental observation satellite. Junichi Moriuma, a spokesman for JAXA. said the agency's main concern was that the particles and radiation emitted in the flare might destroy computer sensors. The agency said that the communications satellite Kodama had malfunctioned and had been switched into a safe mode after being hit by the solar flare. But officials said the satellite, used as a data relay point, was to be reactivated when the solar activity subsided and added that the outage wasn't causing any major communication disruptions. The flare was believed to produce a particle cloud 13 times larger than Earth. The resulting geomagnetic storm was expected to be among the most powerful of its kind. Kodama was launched on 9/10/2002, from the southern Japan island of Tanegashima to transmit data between satellites and ground-based research facilities. It was planned for 7 years of operation.
10/30/2003 Liberia's civil war was officially over, but outside the capitol, it didn?’t look much like peace: Rebels were looting, pro-government militias were raping and civilians were being forced to till fields to feed hungry fighters, residents said. Despite an August peace deal and an expanding peacekeeping mission slated to become the UNs' largest, hundreds of thousands of civilians were still holed up in displaced camps afraid to return home. The UN peacekeeping mission, numbering 4,500 troops, was expected to grow to 15,000 over the next few months. So far only a few hundred soldiers had been deployed to key trouble-spots outside the capitol, Monrovia. Monrovia was calm, but tense as armed peacekeeping soldiers patrolled streets and manned roadblocks. Troops from Guinea-Bissau deployed in Totota in 9/03, marked the peace force's 1st major push into the countryside. They stopped 2 miles outside the town, however. On 10/29/03, the commander of UN forces in Liberia, Kenyan Gen. Daniel Opande, told The AP he'd heard the allegations of rape, forced labor and looting, but could not confirm them.
10/30/2003 More than 680,000 Blacks 5 and older moved to the South from another region between 1995 and 2000, more than double the 333,000 who moved away, according to a Census Bureau report. Blacks started returning to the South between 1975 and 1980, when 100,000 more Blacks moved in than moved out. Georgia took in the largest number of Blacks from other states regardless of region, with a net increase of nearly 130,000 between 1995 and 2000. It was followed by NC and FL. According to separate research from U of Michigan demographer William Frey, Orlando, FL., and Atlanta had the largest jumps in Black populations among large metropolitan areas between 1990 and 2000, each growing by about 62%. Tens of thousands of Blacks left the South in the early decades of the 20th century to escape segregationist Jim Crow laws and a poor economy. That movement north slowed as job opportunities dwindled and racial tensions rose in northern cities in the 1960s and 1970s.
10/30/2003 Campuses with more female and more Black, Asian and other minority underclassmen according to a Harvard U study, found that ?“binge?” drinking by college students was significantly lower. The study, to be published in the 11/03 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, said that ?“the student-body composition and demographic diversity should be examined by colleges wishing to reduce their binge drinking problems.?” Previous studies had shown that younger, White male students, particularly fraternity members, were at higher risk for binge drinking, which was defined as having 5 drinks in succession for men and 4 for women. The Harvard study analyzed data from 114 colleges included in a nationwide College Alcohol Study surveys of 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2001. The study was funded by the Princeton, N.J.-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The study found that on campuses that had 21% or more minority representation, 44% of students were heavy drinkers. That number rose to 53% on campuses with less diversity. Such an approach could add a twist to the affirmative action debate raging at predominantly White universities and education think tanks nationwide. The July study irked some educators who were fighting the problem.
10/31/1887 Chiang Kai-shek, future Chinese General, President of the Chinese Nationalist government (1928-49) on the mainland until it was overthrown and leader of the Republic of China/ Taiwan (1949-4/5/1975), was born (d: 4/5/1975 at age 87).
10/31/1899 ?“The Story of Little Black Sambo,?” with Helen Bannerman's illustrations, was published on this date. Within a year, the book was published in the US. According to the British history journal History Today, Bannerman, the wife of a Scots doctor working for the Indian Medical Service, hatched an idea for a picture book for her 2 children during a 2-day train trip. Set in colonial India, the story she conceived told of a resourceful little Black boy named Sambo, who was confronted by a succession of ravenous tigers. He bargained for his life by trading his ?“grand?” garments. Later, the tigers' vanity got the better of them: Bickering over which tiger was the ?“grandest,?” the cats grabbed each other's tails and circled a tree so fast that they were spun into butter. Black Jumbo collected and took home the butter and Black Mumbo fried up pancakes. Sambo, famished after his ordeal, eats 169. Bannerman wrote the story for her family but later gave the book to a friend, who thought it should be published. Publisher Grant Richards of London bought the copyright for 5 pounds sterling. Only after Sambo crossed the Atlantic did scholars say the tale picked up racial baggage. Pirated versions swapped Bannerman's crude, original drawings for renderings that reflected what was called ?“a particular American racism.?” Thousands through the years will read Sambo to their children and hold cherished memories of the story. So much so that Helen Bannerman's ?“The Story of Little Black Sambo?” will never be out of print since its publication in 1899. Indeed, it was never the narrative that will incensed Black readers but rather the characters' names and the pickaninny pictures often paired with the text (See: 1996 and 3/31/2004).
10/31/1922 Norodom Sihanouk, future King of Cambodia, was born.
10/31/1923 The New York timed reported that the racist Ku Klux Klan dominated the governments in Ar, OK and TX.
10/31/1968 US President Johnson ordered a halt to all US bombing of North Vietnam, saying he hoped for fruitful peace negotiations.
10/31/1984 Indian Prime Minster Indira Gandhi, the 1st female PM of India and the 3rd woman to head a government, was assassinated at age 66 near her residence by 2 Sikh security guards (b: 11/19/1917). As a result of the assassination, angry mobs massacred tens of thousands of Sikhs across India, often burning them alive
10/31/1997 The IMF agreed to a loan package for Indonesia that eventually swelled to $40 billion, and in return the country?’s government closed 16 financially insolvent banks and promised other wide-ranging reforms.
10/31/1997 Businesses owned by minority women: 1.1 million, a 153% increase since 1987; 4 in 10 minority-owned companies are owned by women; businesses owned by Black women: 405,200, 135% increase since 1987; owned by Hispanic women: 382,400, 206% increase since 1987; owned by Asian and American-Indian women; 305,700, 138% increase since 1987; 10 states with largest share of companies owned by minority women: CA, TX, FL, NY, IL, VA, MD, NJ, HA and WA.
10/31/1997 Clara Brown, a Denver, CO., resident was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame at Fort Worth, TX. as a Western honoree. Born a slave in VA., around 1800, she knew hardship and pain. She arrived in Cherry Creek (Denver) in 6/1859 after a 2 month journey across the Great Plains, she did a brisk business in real estate and mining claims and by 1864 she owned 7 houses in Central City, 16 lots in Denver, plus other interests. In 1997, her portrait was installed in a stained glass window in the chambers of the Colorado Supreme Court. Brown died in 1885 at age 85(?) and was buried with honors by the Society of Colorado Pioneers, who had 4 years earlier made her its 1st woman member.
10/31/2001 The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) announced that 23 African Ministers would gather in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss the role of women in their countries' development. The Ministerial Conference would take place between 11/5 and 8/2001 under the aegis the ECA and would be presided over by Zimbabwean Minister for Development, Gender and Employment, Elliot Manyika. The focus of the meetings would be to devise better ways to include women in African programs for poverty reduction. Delegates from the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the African Development Bank (ADB) and various UN, international and non-governmental organizations would also attend.
10/31/2001 Miko Rwayitare cared about color. He wanted to increase the percentage of red wine in his wine estate's output. But ask him about the fact that he was South Africa's 1st Black wine estate owner and he merely shrugged modestly, preferring to talk about plans for his grapes. ?“Our aim is to produce extraordinary wine,?” he said. Though he may downplay it, Rwayitare's wine was already extraordinary before it has entered the bottle. When he acquired the Mont Rochelle estate earlier this year, he quietly broke one of the enduring glass ceilings in the South African wine industry. In South Africa, no Black person had ever entirely owned a wine estate before. And until recently, relations between White estate owners and their Black or Mixed-race laborers were feudal, or worse. Many farms used a labor system known as the ?“dop,?” in which workers were paid in wine rather than in wages. Literally drunk on the meager fruits of their labor, workers had few options but to toil on the boss's estate and raise children who were likely to do the same. Rwayitare, who was born in Rwanda and was a citizen of the Zaire/the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was no stranger to groundbreaking success. He made his fortune as the founder and owner of Telecel International, the homegrown giant of wireless communications in Africa. When Rwayitare started his business in the mid-1980s, he believed that there was a local market for alternatives to land-based telephone lines, which in Africa were generally expensive and unreliable. Few foreign investors believed him, but today, Telecel spans 14 countries in every region of the continent and has paved the way for Africa's telecommunications revolution. Rwayitare became interested in wine in his early days as a businessman in the 1970s, when he began making frequent overseas trips. Facing retirement at the end of a 30-year career in business, Rwayitare decided he wanted to continue working, in wine, not wireless.
10/31/2001 Seven hundred conventioneers and exhibitors poured into New Orleans' Morial Convention Center earlier this year to participate in the annual convention of the 77-year-old National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association (NFD&MA), a Black-American trade association. In spite of the familial and collegial atmosphere, anxiety stirred the air. Conglomerates, casket retailers, costly regulations and persistent customer bad debt besieged the funeral industry. Convention delegates wanted to know how to keep their companies, unlike their customers, from going six feet under. In 1972, there were 4,000 Black-owned funeral homes; today there were 2,895, a 28% decline. The funeral directors, many of whom brought their families to the New Orleans convention, discussed ways to hang onto their businesses in the face of many challenges. More than most industry conventions, though, the NFD&MA meeting was about family and friends. If the Black funeral home industry was to survive, it needed to draw on its rich history and connection to the Black community. T. R. Ragsdale, owner of one of the oldest funeral homes in the country, Wm. Ragsdale & Sons, founded in 1889 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, complained about the inequality of the situation. ?“White funeral homes can and do bury Black bodies,?” he said, ?“but the reverse is rarely the case, even though our prices are often half that of White funeral homes. It's what I call one-way integration.?” The clientele Black funeral homes served mandated the lower price to which Ragsdale referred. On average, Black- Americans' income were still less than Whites'. This income gap was reflected in lower funeral prices. The average funeral service for Whites was $8,000 to $10,000; for Blacks it was $4,500 to $6,000 (See: 3/1979 and 5/1980).
10/31/2001 Veteran television newsman Jerry Blocker, who was Detroit's 1st Black-American television reporter, was a Detroit native and a 1949 graduate of Northwestern High School. Mr. Blocker had always wanted to get into broadcasting, even as a child. But his mother warned him, he said in later years, about trying to make in ?“in the white-folks field.?” After graduation from Wayne State University in 1953, he found his mother was right. However, instead of giving up, Mr. Blocker taught at an elementary school in Detroit and continued knocking on doors. He finally landed a job in 1960 at WCHD- FM (now WCHB-FM). Mr. Blocker was hired by Channel 4 a few weeks after the 1967 Detroit riots and helped open the doors for Black television journalists in Metro Detroit, died in his Southfield home at age 70.
10/31/2001 Former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive, Sara Jane Olson, Afro-Euro-American/White, pled guilty to attempted murder of police officers.
10/31/2002 After 63 years of commercial aviation, British West Indian Airlines (BWIA), the Trinidad-based airline could be grounded forever. A perennial loss-maker, the carrier, which employed 2,400, had been in a downward spiral since the region's tourism industry was devastated by the fallout of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks in the US. Privatization occurred in 1995. Some governments, notably Barbados, which accounted for 29% of BWIA traffic and Grenada, had pledged financial assistance to ensure the survival of the airline because its collapse could seriously erode their tourism industries. A few weeks earlier Barbados helped the airline promote the Manchester, Britain, route and recently waived the airline's landing fees, while Grenada said it was willing to purchase shares in the airlines if this would help to make it viable. The government made it clear that it would not seek to increase its 49% share in the airline. In 1995, the Manning administration absorbed $300 million of the airline?’s debt and provided it with a clean sheet. BWIA said it was confident that a restructuring agreement can be reached by the 10/31/02 deadline, even as the airline admitted that it expected to lose an estimated $80.7 million in 2002. As of 6/02, the airline's consolidated net loss for the year to date stood at $54.3 million compared to a net profit of $6 million for the first 6 months of 2001.
10/31/2003 Despite skyrocketing HIV infection rates in the Caribbean, Cuba had kept the country's rate at just 0.05%, the Chicago Tribune reported. Using a strategy that critics called excessive but that some health experts praised as effective, infected people were isolated from the community and closely supervised. Most Cubans who test positive were required to stay in a sanitarium for at least 3 months. Once there, they could leave only with the permission of the staff. Cuba's aggressive campaign against the AIDS virus involved universal treatment for those who were HIV positive. There also was an extensive outreach program that used television advertisements and volunteers distributing educational materials and condoms to encourage safe sex and limit transmission. Berta Gomez, an AIDS expert with the Pan American Health Organization, said Cuba's approach to fighting AIDS had not been a model for other nations because its policy of isolating carriers violated human rights.
10/31/2003 Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, 78, one of Asia's longest-serving and most controversial leaders, retired to a mix of Asian praise and Western silence after an international outcry over his remarks about Jews. In a sombre ceremony at the royal palace following prayers at the national mosque, Malaysia's King Syed Sirajuddin Jamalullail accepted Mahathir's resignation and swore in his Deputy, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, as the country's 5th Prime Minister. The monarchy was a figurehead which was rotated between the Malay Sultans every 5 years. Fittingly, a tropical thunderstorm broke out over Kuala Lumpur around the time Mahathir handed Abdullah the keys to his office in nearby Putrajaya, ending 22 years in power. The leader of the mainly Muslim Southeast Asian nation spent much of his time rubbing Western governments the wrong way, while becoming a respected spokesman within the Islamic and developing worlds. Western governments had little to say on a historic day for Malaysia. Asian leaders were far more appreciative of Mahathir. ?“I will be missing my elder brother,?” Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told Malaysia's New Straits Times daily. China expressed its ?“sincere admiration?” for Malaysia's accomplishments. Malaysia's 24 million ethnic Malays, Chinese and Indians enjoyed peaceful relations and increased prosperity under his rule, but many agreed Mahathir's time was up. Speaking on the eve of his retirement, Mahathir was modest about his place in history.
10/31/2003 Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani said India would shed its tag of ?‘developing nation?’ and emerge as a ?‘developed?’ country provided elementary necessities like food, water, shelter and primary health of people were redressed totally. ?“ (The) Prime Minister and the President have envisaged India as a developed nation by the year 2020 akin to US, UK and Japan. To realise this, it was important that every citizen had shelter, 2-square meals a day and every village had potable drinking water, road connectivity and facilities for health.?” Advani said inaugurating H M Patel Academic Centre. Advani admitted that India had still not been able to fulfil these basic needs for all its citizens when all other nations have managed to do it. On the tag of ?‘developing nation,?’ the DPM said, ?“We do not want the world to dub us as a developing nation. It is not a nice word to be used. Sometimes I feel, it is used so that we are not hurt but it implies that our country is still underdeveloped.?”
November:
11/1519 To his future detriment the Aztec Emperor Montezuma greeted Hernando Cortes and his army with gifts in a colorful ceremony when they marched into Tenochtitlan. Cortes eventually conquered what would become central and southern Mexico.
11/1540 Ethiopian Emperor Libne Dingel was a devastated and broken man when he received this last awful news. One son was dead, another captured and enslaved, it seems that Libne Dingel, Wenag Seged, ?“He to Whom the Lions Bow?” could take no more. The broken hearted Emperor traveled to the impregnable natural fortress of the monastery of Debre Damo, and encamped near by on an equally formidable mountaintop. The local ruler, Bahir Negash Yishaq, was a maternal cousin of the Emperor and so perhaps he felt secure against betrayal. While there, the Emperor fell ill and weakened, gave up hope of saving his people and devastated by the fate of his sons. Finally Emperor Libne Dingel, Wanag Seged, King of Kings of Ethiopia died at Debre Damo at age 46(?) (See: 1507, 7/1508 and 1526).
11/1578 Ethiopian Emperor Sertse Dengel (Melek Seged) marched north and began a campaign that lasted through 1/1579. During this campaign, the Turkish Pasha of Massawa, Kedawir, was slain by the Emperor's cousin, Abeto Yonael. Shortly afterwards, the Bahir Negash was also killed and his constant rebellion through two reigns came to an end. The severed heads of both the Pasha and the Bahir Negash were brought before the Emperor and displayed to the notables of the north to dissuade them from further rebellion and aid to the Turks. Sertse Dingel then drove the Turks from Adi Korro and accepted the surrender of the Turkish garrison at Debaroa. Sertse Dingel then went to Axum to finally be crowned amid great pomp and lavish ceremony. Following his coronation, Sertse Dingel moved on to Beghemider in 1579.
11/1782 An all-Black unit known as the Connecticut Colonials which served for over 2 years was disbanded, the company?’s 52 free Blacks and slaves were integrated with the state?’s White units in the final months of the war.
11-12/1817 The Negro Fort on the Apalachicola River in Spanish FL., was destroyed by US troops. The fort was manned primarily by escaped slaves and the fortification had been used to continue attacks on the Americans, primarily slave trackers/trappers, after the War of 1812, in what was to become known as the (Black)Seminole Wars.
11/1854 In the US Congressional elections, 44 Republicans were elected as part of the anti-Nebraska majority and many Republicans were elected to the Senate and various State Houses.
11/1858 The Vietnamese city of Da Nang was captured by French forces.
11/1861(?) A faction of the Creek Nation under the leadership of an old Chief named Opothleyahola (see Biographies of Prominent Men in Okahoma History), not only refused to be bound by the treaty to the Confederacy, but prepared to leave the Territory and take refuge in Kansas. Confederate forces under the command of Colonels Douglas H. Cooper and James M. McIntosh pursued and attacked the fugitives, who were not only poorly armed but also encumbered with their families and movable property. After being driven out of the Territory in defeat, with the loss of much of their belongings, the fleeing loyalist Indians finished their journey and arrived in Kansas in a destitute condition. On the other hand, many tribes after entering into treaties with the Confederate States, each of the Five Civilized Tribes raised and organized troops for the Confederate military service.
11/1867(?) Black-Americans voted for the 1st time in a southern State election, contributing to a Republican party sweep in Tennessee.
11(?)/1872 Black Republican politician Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback was elected to the Post of Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana.
11/1890(?) A White supremacist and Populist ?“Pitchfork Ben?” Tillman was elected Governor of South Carolina and he called his election ?“a triumph of ... White supremacy.?”
11/1905 The Japanese Ambassador in Washington, DC informed Elihu Root, Secretary of State that the foreign affairs of Korea would now be the responsibility of Tokyo, essentially, placing the nation of Korea under Japan.
11/1909 At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, construction of a US navel base commenced.
11/1918 The 369th (or "Harlem Hellfighters") was the 1st Allied Regiment to reach the Rhine River during the final offensive against Germany.
11/1918 Members of the 370th Infantry Regiment, an all-Black unit from Illinois fought in the last battle of WW I and captured a German train a few minutes after the Armistice was declared, won 21 American Distinguished Service Crosses and 68 French Croix de Guerre during WWI.
11/1918 Colonel Charles R. Young was finally reinstated, at which time the Army assigned him to Fort Grant, IL, where he trained Black troops (See: 3/12/1864 and 1917).
11/1920 Has the there been a Black-American US President? It has long been rumored that Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the US, had Black roots. At least he never denied it, and once when directly questioned by his friend James Faulkner he admitted, ?“How do I know, Jim? One of my ancestors may have jumped the fence.?” The racial rumors had their positive side, a Republican boss, didn?’t quash the gossip because he thought it would encourage Black votes, which it did. Regardless, Harding was elected President.
11/1922 Adelina Otero Warren of New Mexico campaigns unsuccessfully for a seat in the US Congress.
11/1923 Morgan, a Black man, patented his first traffic light. His device looked much different from the traffic signals used today, but had red, yellow and green lights. He sold the rights to General Electric Co. for $40,000.
11/1923 The 1st Libyan nationalist uprising against colonization in Tripoli was subdued by Italian forces, who also took on renewed Sanusi resistance, the war continued until 1931, when the leader ?‘Umar al-Mukhtar, was captured and executed.
11/1934 Black-American Arthur W. Mitchell, was elected the 1st northern Democrat, Chicago, and 2nd Black elected to the US Congress since reconstruction/20th century, defeating Black-American Republican Oscar S. De Priest.
11/1935 Dennis Chavez, a Democrat from New Mexico, is elected to the US Senate, where he serves until 1962.
11/1935 Concha Ortiz y Pino was elected to the New Mexico Legislature.
11/1941 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. became New York City?’s 1st Black Councilman.
11/1944 Adam Clayton Powell (D-NY/Harlem), became the 1st Black from New York to be elected to the US Congress/the House of Representatives.
11/1944 1,000s of French and British African troops were suddenly returned home as the 1st Allied units shoved their way into Germany. Some military historians theorized that France, at the last stages of its European war, wanted to "whiten" its army to show that the final blows had been delivered by regular French troops. Other historians speculate that a certain uneasiness had seized the free French military command because of reports of fraternizing between Black-American GIs and African troops with the Africans then showing even more pronounced sentiments about equality and independence. That coupled with the sight of a battered, ruined France could harm African dependence and regard for the "mother country."
11/1945(?) Gabriella Mistral, a Chilean poet, is the 1st Latin American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
11/1959 A 2nd dam was necessary at Aswan and in the early 1950s, designs began to be drawn for what was to become the High Dam at Aswan. With the signing of the Nile Water Agreement by Egypt and the Sudan work began on the 2nd Aswan dam which would inundate portions of Nubia.
11/1961 The US enlarged its military advisory mission and assigned combat support missions to South Vietnam.
11/1963(?) Black-American Edward W. Brooke III, became the 1st Black Republican Attorney General for the State of Massachusetts.
11/1969 Indian issues were suddenly again at the center of national attention when a coalition of Indian organizations, headed first by Richard Oaks (Mohawk) and later Trudell, and calling itself Indians of All Tribes (IAT), occupied Alcatraz Island, citing a 1882 federal statute (22 Stat,181) which provided for the establishment of Indian schools in abandoned federal facilities, the protestors demanded the creation of a Center for Native American Studies and other cultural facilities on the abandoned island. The occupation ended after 19 months with an assault by a task force of U.S. marshals and the arrest of the occupiers.
11/1970 Adam Clayton Powell, D-NY (Harlem), lost his bid for reelection to the US House. Powell was a flamboyant, fascinating and formidable risk taker whose political deeds and monumental civil rights achievements made it possible for later generations of Black-American politicians to stand unbowed in the arena of political horse trading. Unfortunately, Powell is largely ignored and forgotten, but he accomplished what no other individual ever did. US Pres. Johnson (once) said, ?“Had Powell been a White man, he would have been President.?”
11/1970 Peter MacDonald, a former Navajo Code Talker during WW II, defeated Raymond Nakai, running for his 3rd term, and was elected Chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council making MacDonald was the 1st college graduate elected to lead the Navajos.
11/1972 Patricia Schroeder (D-Col.) was elected to the US House of Representatives.
11/1974 USAF Captain Lloyd ?“Fig?” Newton became the 1st Black member of the USAF Thunderbirds (their famous aerial demonstration Squadron) until 12/1978. He was born in Ridgeland, SC, in 1942, where he graduated from Jasper HS. He earned a bachelor of science degree in aviation education from Tennessee State U, Nashville, where he was commissioned as a distinguished graduate through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program in 1966. After completing pilot training at Williams AFB, AZ., in 6/1967, he attended F-4D qualification training at George AFB, CA. He flew 269 combat missions from Da Nang Air Base, South Vietnam, including 79 missions over North Vietnam. The general was selected to join the USAF Aerial Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds, in 11/1974. He held several positions including narrator, slot pilot and right wingman. From 1978 to 1982 he was assigned as an Air Force Congressional Liaison officer with the US House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. He has commanded 3 wings and an Air Division and held numerous staff positions. From 1993 to 1995 he was Director of Operations, J-3, US Special Operations Command. The general was a command pilot with more than 4,000 flying hours. The General retired in 8/1/2000. As a member of the USAF Thunderbirds, he was followed by Captain Pete Peterson (1979-82) and the 3rd Black member was Major Mark Smith (2001-?).
11/1974 The United Farm Works ended their strikes began on 4/13/1973.
11/1974 AL 288-1 ("Lucy") a 3.2 million year old partial skeleton found in at Hadar, Ethiopia, was possibly the best-known specimen of afarensis. The afarensis, AL 288-1 ("Lucy"), was separated into 2 chronological categories: early (3.9-3.5 myr) and late (3.5-2.96 myr). The species was named by D. Johanson and T. White in 1978 and lead to a heated debate over the validity of the species (seen in a 1980 issue of Science), with the species eventually being accepted by most researchers as a new species of australopithecine and a likely candidate for a human ancestor (See: 3.2.million years ago).
11/1975 Revolutionary Front of Independent East Timor (Fretilin) declared East Timor independent and appointed Francisco Xavier do Amaral country's 1st President.
11/1976 Burundian President Micombero was replaced by Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza in a palace revolution.
11/1979 Kenyan voters went to the polls to choose the country?’s 4th Parliament since independence and 2 non-Africans, 1 European and 1 Asian-Indian endorsing the non-racial Constitution. Philip Leakey, son of Dr Louis Leakey, won the Langata seat.
11/1981 The United Nations (UN) announced that within the 1st 6 months of the year, some 9,250 murders had taken place in El Salvador.
11/1981 Roberto Suazo Cordova was elected President of Honduras but the military contained control.
11/1983 The Matin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Bill was signed by president Reagan, despite massive pressure from US senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) and King critics, and Reagan?’s deep personal misgivings about the Bill and King. That made him the 1st and likely the last American president to sign a Bill commemorating a Black- American with a national holiday. At a King observance, the year after the holiday officially was celebrated in 1986, Reagan denounced racial bigotry and discrimination. Reagan, in effect, wrapped himself in King?’s mantle. In the future presidents Bush Sr., Clinton and Bush junior will follow that precedent and on every King holiday evoke his name and speak out against racial discrimination.
11/1987 Tunisian Interior Minister, Zine el-Abidine ben Ali, toppled President ?“for Life?” Habib Bourguiba in a bloodless palace coup.
11/1989 Brazil had its 1st opportunity to elect a President by popular vote in almost 30 years and elected Fernando Collor de Mello.
11/1990 Tanzanian President Mwinyi won a 2nd 5 year term as President.
11/1991(?) The Institute for Justice (IJ)was founded and was what a civil liberties law firm should be. As the US?’ only libertarian public interest law firm (www.ij.org), they pursued cutting-edge litigation in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion on behalf of individuals whose most basic rights were denied by the State, rights like economic liberty, private property rights and the right to free speech, not only on paper but also on the Internet. Simply put, they sued the government when it stood in the way of people trying to earn an honest living, when it took away individuals' property, when bureaucrats instead of parents dictated the education of children and when government stifled speech. They sought a rule of law under which individuals could control their destinies as free and responsible members of society (See: 11/9/2001(?)).
11/1992 Revolutionary Front of Independent East Timor (Fretilin) leader Jose Alexandre ?“Xanana?” Gusmao was captured by Indonesians soldiers but continued to serve as chief strategist while in jail in Jakarta.
11/1992(?) Around the Lewis and Cooper created their list in Manhattan, Maryland Del. Howard ?“Pete?” Rawlings started agitating in Annapolis. Rawlings, a Democrat from Baltimore, was running out of patience. A college math teacher before his election in 1979 to the House of Delegates, Rawlings, like Reginald Lewis, was deeply concerned about the mental well-being of young Black people. He picked up a telephone and called J. Rodney Little, director of the Maryland Historic Trust. Three years before, Rawlings had approached Little in the State House, between legislative hearings, to ask his advice about starting a museum of Black history. Little said the 1st step would be to conduct studies to determine the extent and condition of MD's Black collection and the potential for tourism. Rawlings, then a ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, arranged for the money to fund the studies. Little's time was up. Rawlings had become Chairman of the Committee, making him one of the most powerful politicians in MD. MD's Black history was slipping away, one study said. The 10 museums in MD. that promoted Black history and culture dealt primarily with well-publicized events and people, and there was little documentation of the day-to-day lives of the state's lesser-known Blacks, including those who figured in the civil rights movement. Many of those people were dead. Others were very old, their voices about to be silenced forever. MD's largest depository of Black artifacts, the Banneker Douglass Museum in Annapolis, didn't have the capacity to hold all of the material that historians believed were out there. Rawlings was alarmed (See: 10/1992, ?/?/1992, 2/1994(?), 4/1994(?), 2/5/2001, 12/11/2003 and 5/19/2004).
11/1994 Chandrika Kumarantunga was elected Sri Lanka?’s 1st female President.
11/1994 Interim Brazilian President Itamar Franco was succeeded by Fernando Caradoso when he was elected President.
11/1994 Black-American J.C. Watt, Jr., was elected the 1st Black Republican US Congressional Representative, serving the 4th District, from OK.
11/1995 Former US Army General Colin Powell, after being heavily recruited by the Republican Party, gracefully declined to be a candidate for any political office in 1996.
11/1996 The Chachapoya, ?“cloud people,?” mummies were found by ranchers clearing trees in the forest of the Dreuvian Andes. Several months later, an expedition led by Sonia Guillen, a Peruvian archaeologist and mummy specialist, headed a team to uncover, excavate and study the remains of the once flourishing culture of the Chachapoya people. The ?“dig?” uncovered 205 mummies in a string of caves. It was the largest such grouping of mummies ever found in the Andes (See: 1475 and 11/28/2001).
11/1997 Chinese President Jiang Zemin of China arrived in the US for his 1st official state visit. Many demonstrations were planned by groups protesting alleged human rights abuses by China, in particular, the repression of religion and other freedoms in Tibet.
11/1997 China and Russia signed a declaration to end disputes over their more than 2,000-mile long Far Eastern boundary.
11/1998 Brazilian President Fernando Caradoso was reelected despite a 1996 UN Report that stated, Brazil had the world?’s most unequal distribution of wealth.
11/1999 Women by the numbers: are 3.8% of the highest-ranking corporate executives; 2..7% of top corporate earners; 6.2% of ?“line?” jobs with P&L responsibility in Fortune 500 companies; average lifetime cumulative earnings for a 50-year-old woman vs a 50-year-old man: $496,000. vs. $1.1 million; median annual private pension income: $3,000 for women vs. $7,800 for men (1995) and number of US working women: 1900 - 5.3 million, 1950 - 18.4 million and 1997 - 63 million.
11/2000 The last US state with a statute barring legal miscegenation lost that dubious distinction when Alabama voters approved, by a margin of 60% to 40%, an amendment voiding Section 102 of the state's 6th and most recent Constitution (1901). Alvin Holmes, 59, who has represented West Montgomery County (pop. 38,000; 72% Black) since 1974, said he proposed the amendment 4 or 5 years ago but couldn't get it out of committee.
11/2001 Ghana's Parliament passed legislation which allowed any person of African descent in the Diaspora to live and work in Ghana indefinitely. Previously, Black-Americans in Ghana had continually to renew visas and work permits, which proved to be both costly and bothersome. Those who had advocated the Black-American cause celebrated a small victory. Ghana was the 1st and only African nation to adopt legislation providing Africa's dispersed family a legal right to return. The actual document is called The Right to Abode and while there was an application process and a few minor qualifications that were outlined, it indeed provided a new opportunity to Africans in the Diaspora.
11/2001 When the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its new unemployment figures the media's economic analysts focused largely on the effect 9/11 would have had on an already limping national economy. Job losses from the dot-com busts were expected to be joined by massive layoffs in the hard-hit travel and tourism industries, cementing predictions of a coming recession. In the last 3 months some 700,000 Americans lost their jobs. These numbers registered a sobering new reality when compared to the fact that on average over 230,000 jobs were created each month from 1996 to 2000. But the picture for Black-Americans was even bleaker, said Dr. William Spriggs, a leading economist and Director of the National Urban League's Institute of Opportunity and Equality. At 9.7%, the Black unemployment rate was the highest in 5 years. According to Spriggs, the numbers and the pattern they were taking mimicked what happened in the recession of the early 1990s, which was characterized by extremely high unemployment among Blacks, 14.2% at its height, and a long, slow recovery. ?“The difference in the Black and White unemployment rates meant that while the rest of America may experience a recession, unless the President, Congress and the Federal Reserve act immediately to provide a safety net for those folks at the bottom end of the economic ladder it could easily turn into a depression for Black-Americans," Spriggs said.
11/2001(?) Henry Lewis Gates, Jr. Chairman of the African-American Studies Department at Harvard University was the only bidder novel signed by Hannah Crafts, which had been unpublished and unnoticed for more than 140 years and was potential the earliest known novel by a Black-American woman, slave or free. The 300-page manuscript was ?“The Bondswoman?’s Narrative,?” for which he paid less than $10,000. The signed novel, was a melodramatic account of her life as a house slave to a number of owners and then as a teacher in the North. The detailed depiction of slave life on a plantation were revealing. Its narrator discussed the sexual dynamics among owners, their wives and their female slaves; the complicated intimacy between female slaves and their owners wives; and the revulsion of house slaves toward field slaves. Its existence suggested that some slaves managed to attain a far greater degree of literacy and literary sophistication than many had supposed. Gates was unable to trace the author, but many of the names or characters in book belonged to real people, including the narrator?’s final owner, John Hill Wheeler. Warner Books planned to publish the narrative in April.
11/2001 Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh visited US President Bush in Washington. At The US informed him that it believed al-Qaeda was behind the 10/2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen's southern port of Aden, which killed 17 American sailors. Information given to Mr. Saleh included at least 1 of the men among 3 names of suspected al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen that US. Also, officials said 1 of the men being sought was a non-Yemeni Arab who previously was in Afghanistan (See: 12/18/2001).
11/2001 A transitional government gained office after Hutu and Tutsi political parties signed a power-sharing accord that was supposed to end the war. Rebels did not take part in those talks and fighting continued. Two smaller rebel factions would signed cease-fires in 10/02 that will appear to be holding. A 4th rebel group, the National Liberation Forces or FNL, refused to halt fighting, but will hold talks with government and military officials in Switzerland in 3/03. A 700-strong force of South African soldiers was posted to Burundi with the task of protecting top Hutu politicians taking part in the power-sharing government (See: 10/1993 and 4/3/2003).
11/2002 Twenty-three (23) Black companies were listed on South Africa?’s stock exchange accounting for about 2.2% of the market capitalization, a decline attributed to a stock market slump, spiraling debt and poor management (See: 1998).
11/2003 Mr. Benjamin Zephaniah an African-Caribbean poet and playwright turned down the Order of the British Empire (OBE), what most in Britain would regard as an honour because he said, ?“accepting it would be accepting the thousands of years of brutality and slavery which he could not do.?” Upon receipt of the letter informing him of the Award, Mr. Benjamin Zephaniah wrote,?“Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear that word ?“empire;?” it reminded me of slavery, it reminded of thousands of years of brutality, it reminded me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised. It was because of this concept of empire that my British education led me to believe that the history of Black people started with slavery and that we were born slaves and should therefore be grateful that we were given freedom by our caring White masters ...?”
11/1/1777 The African Free School of New York City was opened.
11/1/1886 Sakutaro Hagiwara, future prominent Japanese poet, was born (d: 5/11/1942 at age 55).
11/1/1890 Literacy and ?“understanding?” tests to disenfranchise Black-Americans citizens were used under the Mississippi Plan. Similar statutes were adopted by South Carolina (1895), Louisiana (1898), North Carolina (1900), Alabama and Virginia (1901) Georgia (1908) and Oklahoma (1910).
11/1/1901 The Colored Industrial and Agricultural School was founded in Grambling, LA., it later became Grambling State University.
11/1/1910 The 1st issue of ?“Crisis,?” a publication sponsored by the NAACP and edited by W.E.B. Du Bois, appeared.
11/1/1942 John H. Johnson published the 1st issue of Negro Digest.
11/1/1945 John H. Johnson published the 1st issue of Ebony magazine, a glossy picture magazine, which emphasizes success and middle class Black life. Johnson Publishing became one of the US?’s largest Black-owned businesses, with publications like: Negro Digest (11/1/1942) and Jet magazine (11/1/1951).
11/1/1950 Two Puerto Rican Nationalists tried to force their way into Blair House in Washington, DC to assassinate US President Truman. The attempt failed and 1 of the pair was killed.
11/1/1951 Jet magazine was founded by John H. Johnson, publisher of Ebony magazine (See: 11/1/1945).
11/1/1954 The north African nation of Algeria began its rebellion against French rule and this date is celebrated as the Anniversary of the Revolution (See: 7/5/1962).
11/1/1963 South Vietnamese President Diem was overthrown, with tacit US approval, he and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu were assassinated.
11/1/1981 The islands of Antigua and Barbuda became an independent state within the British Commonwealth of Nations. Some 3,000 refugees fleeing a volcanic eruption on nearby Montserrat have settled in Antigua and Barbuda since1995.
11/1/1990 Ebony magazine, a Johnson Publication, celebrated its 45th anniversary (See: 11/1/1945).
11/1/1990 The State of California reported that one third of all Black men between the ages of 20 and 29 are in prison, on parole or on probation.
11/1/1991 Black Republican Clarence Thomas took his place as the newest Justice on the US Supreme Court.
11/1/1992 Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL) was elected and became the 1st Black-American female US Senator.
11/1/1995 The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) became a legal entity after Parliament passed the Botswana Stock Exchange Act in 8/1994. The origins of the Exchange can be found in the Botswana Development Corporation?’s (BDC) need for a vehicle to sell its investments in 1989. Between 1989 and 1995 the listing rules, member rules and all general requirements were applied, with assistance from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, in the share market. At that time, Botswana did not have an Act so the Exchange had no legal status. An interim Stock Exchange committee comprising 2 stockbroking members and 3 members appointed by the Ministry of Finance was established. In 1996, the Exchange prepared feasibility studies for its plans for the establishment of an independent Stock Exchange and the Bank of Botswana approved dual listings.
11/1/1996 The Louisiana State University Chancellor, William ?“Bud?” Davis, resigned amid a scandal over an aide?’s awarding 49 minority scholarships to White students after it was revealed that David ?“Sonny?” DeVillier, a special assistant to Davis, had given White students 49 of 54 scholarships under a program set-up to help minority students and that White students who received them belonged to or later joined Lambda Chi Alpha, a fraternity with which DeVillier was affiliated.
11/1/2001 Black politics were in a vacuum and race relations in Britain were brittle, according to Lord Hermen Ouseley when he delivered the 1st Bernie Grant Memorial Lecture at Westminster. Lord Ouseley, former Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality gave a frank address entitled Black leadership and participation in Britain to the House of Commons. He said: ?“Black and Asian political leadership is in a vacuum, caught in a party political cul-de-sac. It is stifled by British political parties, which do not appear to represent a source for the emergence of a British Black political party leadership. Unequivocal political leadership is vital to challenging racism in British society, as a result race relations in Britain remain disturbingly brittle, as recent events in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford indicate, yet the problems are not insoluble.?” The speech was arranged by the Bernie Grant Trust, established shortly after Bernie Grant's death and its main objective was to carry on the work of Bernie Grant. The trust was setting up a leadership programme for African, Caribbean and minority people to become leaders in the community (See: 4/8/2000 and 10/9/2000).
11/1/2001 Former South Africa President Nelson Mandela, the Chief Mediator in the Burundi peace process, arrived in Bujumbura to attend the swearing-in of a power-sharing government between Hutus and Tutsis in the war-torn nation. Also attending the inauguration will be South Africa's Vice President Jacob Zuma, Presidents Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Bakili Muluzi of Malawi, according to the official program. Uganda will be represented by Vice President Specioza Wandira-Kazibwe and Ethiopia by Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin. Amara Essy, the Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity, will also attend the swearing-in ceremony. Five other African heads of state invited to the inauguration will be represented by Ambassadors.
11/1/2001 Baroness Patricia Janet Scotland Labour's 1st Black woman and a Minister in the Lord Chancellor's Department, shared chambers with Gordon Pringle, a senior barrister who was charged with racism by his professional body. In 1991, Patricia Scotland became the 1st Black female QC at the age of 35. She joined Bridewell Chambers as an ?“associate member?” last year. Shortly after Labour was elected in 1997, she was made a peer and she became the 1st Black woman to be appointed to the Government. Pringle, a colleague of the Baroness, faced 5 charges of using racist and offensive language while working in the High Court and the Old Bailey, which he was defending before the Bar's disciplinary tribunal. Mr Pringle was accused by Eric Adusei, the London solicitor's clerk who has brought the complaint, claiming that when both men went to meet a defendant in the High Court, Mr Pringle called him a ?“blackie.?” Mr Adusei told the tribunal last week: ?“While in the cells he introduced me as blackie, then smiled.?” On a separate occasion, Mr Pringle, referred to the clerk and another defendant as ?“coons?” he alleged. Mr Pringle was further alleged to have called Mr Adusei a ?“black boy?” and ?“black Moor?” during an 8-month fraud trial at the Old Bailey last year.
11/1/2002 President Thabo Mbeki said, ?“a small minority of South Africans were trying to tear the country apart and return it to the oppressive days of apartheid.?” Mbeki was responding to the spate of bombings in the township of Soweto that killed a woman. Authorities were investigating whether right-wing extremists were behind the attacks. However, the overwhelming majority of South Africans of all races oppose that goal and bombings and bloodshed will never force them to change their minds, Mbeki wrote in the African National Congress' online newsletter. In recent weeks, police had discovered several weapons caches, including homemade bombs and arrested 17 people accused of involvement in a White, extremist plot to overthrow the government. Mbeki said the nation had achieved a miracle of reconciliation. Its democracy continued to allow all law-abiding voices, even the most fringe, to be heard and many tiny parties hold seats in Parliament. However, some frustrated people had turned to threats of violence to try to force the government to change its policies. ?“The democratic order will not submit to threats of this kind,?” he wrote.
11/1/2002 The Black Retail Action Group (BRAG) hosted its 32nd Annual Dinner/Dance and Fundraiser at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers in NYC. Fashion and retail's brightest stars saluted 15 high school and college scholarship winners and 5 BRAG awardees. Lloyd Boston, author and on-air style contributor for the Today Show, was emcee for the event. The organization, which prepared students for executive and managerial careers in the industry by providing scholarships and internships, was founded to attract young people of color to retail, fashion and related industries. All of the BRAG awardees were thankful for being recognized for their accomplishments. Ava Hill-Gaunt, VP/DMM Kids for Bob's Stores, may not have been an entrepreneur, but she summed it up best by saying that achievement should not be equated with dollars. ?“I hope that my influence empowers people to work hard and make it. I hope my example says if you work hard it can happen.?”
11/1/2003 An internal report that harshly criticized the US Justice Department's (DOJ) diversity efforts was edited so heavily when it was posted on the department's Web site 2 weeks ago that half of its 186 pages, including the summary, were blacked out. The deleted passages, electronically recovered by a self- described information archaeologist in Tucson, AZ., portrayed the department's record on diversity as seriously flawed, specifically in the hiring, promotion and retention of minority lawyers. The unedited report, completed in 6/2002 by the consulting firm KPMG, found that minority employees at the department perceived their own workplace as biased and unfair. The department does face significant diversity issues, the report stated. Whites and minorities, as well as men and women perceive differences in many aspects of the work climate. For example, minorities were significantly more likely than Whites to cite stereotyping, harassment and racial tension as characteristics of the work climate. Many of these differences were also present between men and women, although to a lesser extent. Another deleted portion said that efforts to promote diversity would take extraordinarily strong leadership from the attorney general's office and other DOJ offices. Discrimination was perceived by minority lawyers who made up about 15% of the DOJs 9,200 lawyers. DOJ had sought to hide from the public statistically significant findings of discrimination against minorities within its ranks, said David Shaffer, a lawyer who had represented agents from a number of US agencies in class-action lawsuits charging discrimination.
11/2/1875 Black votes were suppressed by fraud and violence and Southern Democrats carried the Mississippi elections. "The Mississippi Plan" staged riots, political assassinations, massacres and social and economic intimidation was used later to overthrow the Reconstruction governments in SC and LA.
11/2/1903 On Monday, Maggie Lena Walker became the 1st Black woman bank President by founding and opening Saint Luke Penny Bank in Richmond, VA.
11/2/1930 (Tekent 23, 1922 on the Ethiopian calendar) Negus Tafari was crowned His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie, the 225th continuous ruler of the country. His son Prince Asfa Wossen was confirmed as the Crown Prince and heir to the Throne. His coronation signified to thousands of Jamaicans and Garveyites in the US, the fulfillment of the prophecy of their leader, Marcus Garvey.
11/2/1930 J.A. Rogers covered Haile Selassie?’s coronation, for the New York Amsterdam News, and was presented with the Coronation Medal by the Emperor.
11/2/1948 Luis Mu?±oz Mar?n became the 1st Governor elected by the Puerto Rican people.
11/2/1948 All Blacks allowed to vote, voted by 75% for Democrat H. Truman because he had proposed new civil rights legislation that caused southern Democrats to walk out of the Democratic Convention to form their own racist splinter party under the leadership of Strom Thurmond, now a Republican, and 25% for his Republican opponent.
11/2/1954 Charles C. Diggs Jr. (D-MI) became the 1st Black-American Representative to the US Congress from Michigan, joining William Dawson (D-IL) and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (D-NYC) as the only Black-Americans in the US Congress at the time but comprised the largest number of Black-Americans to date in Congress in the 20th century. Diggs would leave the US Congress in 1980 after being convicted of mail fraud and being censured by US House/Congress (See: 12/2/ 1922).
11/2/1963 South Vietnamese President Ngo Dihn Diem was assassinated in a CIA inspired military coup
11/2/1976 Carlos Romero Barcel?³ was elected Governor of Puerto Rico with 48.3% of the vote.
11/2/1982 Katie B. Hall (D-IN) was elected the 1st Black-American Representative to the US Congress from Indiana.
11/2/1983 The Bill establishing a federal holiday to be observed on the 3rd Monday in January in honor of Martin Luther King, was signed by US President Ronald Reagan.
11/2/1996 Marcenia Lyle Alberga aka: Toni Stone, the 1st woman to play in the Negro Leagues, in 1953, Syd Pollack, owner of the Indianapolis Clowns, signed Toni to play second base, a position that had been vacated when Hank Aaron was signed by the Boston (soon to be Milwaukee) Braves. She was inducted into the Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1993 and she was honored in two separate sections in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown; the "Women in Baseball" exhibit, and the Negro Leagues section, died at age 75 in CA.. (b: 1921, St. Paul, Minn).
11/2/2000 ?“George M. Fredrickson's review of recent works on slavery [NYR, 11/1/2000] stressed the neglected brutality of that institution, while Larry McMurtry's review [NYR, 12/21/2000] highlighted the lynchings that became the White South's ultimate sanction against post-Reconstruction Blacks. However, I believe there is another ?“skeleton in the closet?” of US Black?–White relations which to my knowledge has not been addressed. That is the ongoing resistance of Blacks against White oppression. I am not speaking of the well-known slave rebellions, famous but momentary efforts of Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, and others, nor of urban riots and revolts in more recent years. I mean, rather, the daily, constant efforts of Black Americans, especially in the South, to defend themselves, their families and communities, not only through strategies of outward conformance or of invisibility, but through armed self-defense, since Reconstruction. I mean the shotgun behind the door. I give 2 examples. Entering a small Louisiana town as a Northern civil rights volunteer in the 1960s, I learned that our group would be protected, during our voter registration efforts, by a local organization established in several Louisiana communities, the Deacons for Defense and Justice. These were not the public leaders of the communities, who interacted with the White power structure, but men familiar with guns. As I ferried volunteers to their lodgings in the ?“Negro Quarters?” each night, in my Volkswagen bus, followed by Whites seeking to track us to our homes, I was accompanied by 2 ?“outriders?” with shotguns. All night long, every night, Deacons patrolled all of the homes lodging CORE workers. When their numbers grew short, I was deputized as a deacon, carrying a handgun as student volunteers from my college went door to door. (I was older and a teacher, hence the choice.) As the mood in that small company town became increasingly threatening, there was a shoot-out. The back of my Volks bus was blown out (it was parked and empty at the time). Shots were exchanged: there was rumored injury to a White. This was no singular incident, but where is the recounting of self-defensive Black actions during the civil rights years? Later, a Black student of mine, who had moved with his family to California from rural Texas, told me of a vigilante group active in his home area, termed the ?“Ax Men.?” One of their functions was the murder of any offspring of mixed-race unions. An acquaintance of my student, a 12-year-old girl, was so murdered. No wonder that many homes had a shotgun behind the door. And no wonder, given this longstanding circumstance, that Ida B. Wells, a co-founder of the NAACP and leader in the anti-lynching movement of the turn of the last century, should have remarked, ?“The Remington rifle should have a place of honor in every Black home.?” To acknowledge the long history of Black self-defense will require some uncomfortable reexamination of issues of gun control and access, for it scarcely needs noting that Blacks have found it difficult to obtain weapons legally, especially in the South. Such acknowledgment would also demand a revision of the overwhelmingly pacifist version of the civil rights movement which is current at least in the White liberal community. Perhaps there is another reason for this historical suppression and denial, a fear that to acknowledge such agency will provoke even more brutal repression. That I cannot judge. It seems to me, however, that it is time for historians (and especially oral historians) to redress this omission, so that the record of armed self-defense by post-Reconstruction Black- Americans can take its place in our history, just as the fact of Jewish resistance to the Holocaust has now become an integral part of the history of the Holocaust. Jeffrey M. Dickemann, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, Sonoma State University, Richmond, CA (See: (See: 7/10/1964, 1966, 1968 and 1972).?”
11/2/2001 Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, President of Somalia's transitional government was in Nairobi for talks organized by the Kenyan government that aimed to restore peace and unify his fractured country, was also eager for America to return to Mogadishu. He hoped that the 9/11 attacks would serve to unite Somalia and the US and not attract American bombs aimed at rooting out suspected links between his country and Osama bin Laden. Mr. Abdiqassim was one of many leaders of Africa's Muslim states who had lent their support to the US' antiterrorism campaign in the hope that Washington would remember such allegiances when the bombing of Afghanistan was done. The Somalis had been anxious since Mr. Bush included Al Itihad al Islamiya, a radical Islamic group with ties to Somalia, in the list of terrorist groups with possible financial links to Mr. bin Laden's Qaeda network. Because the US no longer had a presence in Somalia and American officials had avoided Mogadishu since 1995 on security grounds, Mr. Abdiqassim used his visit to Nairobi to meet with the American ambassador, Johnnie Carson. Mr. Abdiqassim said he urged American officials to end their arms- length approach toward Somalia and to realize that Somalia, although not perfect, could be much worse.
11/2/2002 Matel Dawson Jr., a forklift operator with an 8th-grade education who became a major philanthropist in the later years of his life, had donated $1.3 million to higher education, including about $650,000. To Wayne State University, where he was given an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters in 1996. In addition to the latter, he contributed regularly to several community colleges and the state universities, a local library, his church, the NAACP and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). His 1994 gift of $50,000. to UNCF broke all records, including those he himself had set. Mr. Dawson died at home in Detroit, at age 81 (b: /?/? 1921, Shreveport, LA.).
11/2/2002 Al Sharpton called the treatment of more than 200 Haitian migrants detained in South Florida a ?“moral outrage?” and pledged to organize rallies and marches to demand their release. Sharpton spoke to loud applause and cheers at a Haitian music festival as a slide show behind him depicted the landing of more than 200 Haitians last week, who plunged from a wooden freighter into shallow waters and scrambling onto a major highway. ?“If other races can come to America, then we can come to America from Haiti,?” Sharpton said to a crowd of about 2,000 at the Haitian roots music festival in Miami's Bayfront Park. A planned march was rescheduled for 11/5/02. Instead, Sharpton held a news conference, saying Haitians should be treated like other immigrants who come to the US.
11/2/2002 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said in a rare interview that he believed the American and British determination to make war on Iraq could collapse under the weight of anti-war sentiment in the 2 countries. Pointing to Arab public opinion as a force in Iraq's favor, Saddam also appealed to Arab leaders to defend Iraq. Arguing that Washington's goal was to control Mideast oil, he said that after attacking Iraq, U.S. forces could strike at other Arab countries and non-Arab Iran. Most of Saddam's statements were standard Iraqi rhetoric, but his references to anti-war demonstrations in the West were the 1st signal he believed protests could undermine President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the chief advocates of attacking Iraq. While the US had said it wanted to oust Saddam to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the Iraqi President maintained in the interview that America's real design was to take control of Middle East oil to serve the interests of its ally, Israel. He said Iran could be attacked, too, and Saudi Arabia undermined, saying Washington wanted to split the Middle East into tiny entities ruled by ?“guards and watchmen?” serving US interests. Asked why the US was not targeting North Korea, which had acknowledged it was developing nuclear weapons, Saddam said ?“first because North Korea has no oil and, second, because North Korea is not an enemy to Israel, nor is it near its borders.?”
11/2/2003 The most heated NYC Council contest, the race to succeed slain Councilman James E. Davis, drew yet another high-profile political figure. Former Mayor David N. Dinkins endorsed the Working Families Party candidate over the Democrat, who was Mr. Davis's brother. Mr. Dinkins, who was one of the forces behind the creation of the Working Families Party 5 years ago, said the decision to endorse its candidate, Letitia James, was difficult because he had been one of the speakers at the funeral of Mr. Davis, who was shot in City Hall in 7/03. The endorsement was but one of a series of last-minute campaign events over that weekend. In the race to succeed Mr. Davis, the slain councilman, his brother Geoffrey A. Davis had been criticized by some Democratic leaders, who pointed to his past brushes with the law. Mr. Davis had said that he was guilty only of youthful indiscretions and that he was best suited to follow his brother into the Council. However, Mr. Dinkins echoed the sentiment expressed by several notable Democrats, including the state comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, and his predecessor, H. Carl McCall. Mr. Dinkins suggested that Ms. James, an aide to Assemblyman Roger Green and a longtime Democratic Party operative, was the best candidate in the 4-person race because of her longstanding work as a lawyer and as an aide to various elected officials.
11/2/2003 Makrina Gudiel gave up her identity to survive. As a teenager who accepted neither a woman's place in this macho society nor Guatemala's military government, she grabbed a rifle, embraced the nom de guerre ?“Ana?” and joined the guerrillas. Worn down by combat, she spent 5 years in exile in the US, protected by the so-called sanctuary movement organized by Americans protesting US policy in Central America during the civil wars of the 1980's. But she was hiding no more. Now she was a Congressional candidate of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity in elections being held on 11/9/03. The rebels founded the party after peace accords in 1996 ended the country's 36-year civil war. Ms. Gudiel welcomed campaigning openly in a land no longer at war. But it was far from peace: poverty was rampant, society was polarized and men with guns lingered at the fringes of her campaign stops. Like a flashback, even Gen. Efra?n R?os Montt, who presided over the counterinsurgency when Ms. Gudiel was with the rebels, was running for President. She was considered to have a shot at winning. She talked about how people had a right to know government budgets and a say in how the money was spent. When she talked about health care or school, it was not an abstraction: she was now a single mother raising 3 boys while keeping up a breakneck pace dashing to campaign stops in a pickup truck. At campaign rallies, grandmothers and teenage girls alike surround her. The signs of her past were evident as she rode in a campaign caravan. Another candidate wore a bulletproof vest. On the street, wiry men with steely gazes, some with missing fingers, nodded at her like the former comrades in arms they once were. She would do it again, she said, even the hardship, the exile, the loss of friends and family. ?“I could have been like a Guatemalan, get educated and do nothing,?” she said. ?“It is easy to ignore reality when you are ignorant. But when you know, then you have a commitment.?”
11/2/2003 Burundi's President Domitien Ndayizeye and Peter Nkurunziza, leader of the rebel Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), the main rebel group signed a peace agreement, but efforts to end the decade-long civil war were threatened by renewed fighting between Tutsi-dominated government troops and other Hutu rebels. At least one other group, the Hutu-dominated National Liberation Force, resisted any agreement with the government and skirmishes continued. Two smaller rebel factions signed cease-fires in 10/2002. More than 200,000 people, mostly civilians, had been killed since fighting started in 10/1993. Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's 1st democratically elected leader, a Hutu. Ndayizeye, a Hutu, headed a transitional government that took office in 11/ 2001. His predecessor was a Tutsi. Tutsis were in the minority in Burundi, but had effectively controlled the country for all but a few months since it achieved independence in 1962.
11/3/1839 The 1st Opium War between China and Britain broke out because China was attempting to suppress the British opium trade among it people.
11/3/1868 John W. Menard, of Louisiana, defeated a White candidate, 5,107 to 2,833, in an election in LA's 2nd US Congressional District to fill an unexpired term in the 40th US Congress and became the 1st elected Black-American Representative to US Congress.
11/3/1874 James Theodore Holly a Black-American who emigrated to Haiti in 1861, was elected Bishop of Haiti.
11/3/1883 White Democratic conservatives in Danville, Virginia, seized control of the racially integrated and popularly elected local government, killing 4 Black-Americans in the process.
11/3/1903 Panama proclaimed its independence from Colombia with covert US assistance.
11/3/1933 Louis Wade Sullivan, future Black Republican MD who in 1978 will leave Boston University to co-found the Morehouse School of Medicine and become its 1st President, later to be named by US President George Bush to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services (3/10/1989) and finally return to Morehouse (1/21/1993), was born in Atlanta, GA.
11/3/1942 William L. Dawson (D-IL) was elected to the US Congress from Chicago.
11/3/1942 Black and White advocates of direct, nonviolent action organized the Sleeping Car Porters under the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and securing recognition for them; and because of his fearless, determined mobilization of mass opinion that resulted in... Executive Order No. 8802, which banned racial discrimination in defense industries and government work."
11/3/1945 Irving C. Mollison, a Chicago Republican, was sworn in as US Customs Court judge in New York City.
11/3/1964 Roberto Sanchez Vilella was elected Governor of Puerto Rico, succeeding 4 term Governor Luis Mu?±oz Mar?n.
11/3/1964 An unprecedented 94% of all Black-Americans allowed to vote, voted for Democratic President L.B. Johnson, allegedly the greatest Presidential supporter of (dubious new) civil rights in history, while his opponent Republican B. Goldwater, the 1st of the modern conservative republicans, received about 5% of the Black vote.
11/3/1964 Eligio ?“Kika?” de la Garza of Texas was elected to the 89th US Congress and Joseph Montoya of New Mexico was elected to the US Senate.
11/3/1964 John Conyers, Jr.(D) was elected to the US House of Representatives from Detroit, MI.
1/3/1970 Twelve Black-Americans were elected to the 92nd US Congress, including 5 new Congressmen: Ralph H. Metcalfe (D-IL), George Collins (D-IL), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Ronald Dellums (D-CA), and Parren Mitchell (D-MD).
11/3/1970 Wilson Riles was elected as the 1st Black-American Superintendent of Public Instruction in California.
11/3/1970 Richard Austin was elected as the 1st Black-American Secretary of State in Michigan.
11/3/1970 Salvador Allende was inaugurated President of Chile, even though the US CIA again attempted to prevent his election. After the election the CIA began undercutting the government of Chile by cutting off economic aid.
11/3/1972 Ramsey Muniz of La Raza won 6.28% of the gubernatorial vote, to make incumbent Democrat Texas Governor Dolph Brisco?’s reelection a close race.
11/3/1972 United Farm Workers (UFW) supporters defeat the growers?’ Proposition 22, which would have made secondary boycotts illegal.
11/3/1978 Dominica was granted its independence by the UK. Dominica was the last of the Caribbean islands to be colonized by Europeans, due chiefly to the fierce resistance
of the native Caribs. France ceded possession to Great Britain in 1763, which made the island a colony in 1805. In 1980, 2 years after independence, Dominica's fortunes improved when a corrupt and tyrannical administration was replaced by that of Mary Eugenia Charles, the 1st female Prime Minister in the Caribbean, who remained in office for 15 years.
11/3/1979 Five radicals were killed when gunfire erupted during an anti-Ku Klux Klan demonstration in Greensboro, NC, after a caravan of Klansmen and Nazis drove into the area.
11/3/1979 Democrat Nancy E. Dick was elected Colorado?’s 1st woman and 41th Lt. Governor, in a special election to replace George L. Brown (1975-79) she served until 1983.
11/3/1979 Democrat Mervyn Dymally, CA.?’s 1st elected Black-American Lt. Governor (1974-78), was elected to the US House of Representatives and served until he retired in 1992.
11/3/1980 The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported about Trent Lott in a report about a rally for the presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan in downtown Jackson (MS) at which Thurmond was the keynote speaker. Thurmond, according to the story, told the gathering of 1,000 people that the country ?“cannot stand four more years of (US President) Jimmy Carter. . . . We've got to balance the budget. Jimmy Carter won't do it, but Ronald Reagan will do it.?” Then Thurmond declared: ?“(We) want that federal government to keep their filthy hands off the rights of the states.?” For many supporters and opponents of civil rights, the phrase ?“state's rights?” stood for the right of states to reject federal civil rights legislation. After Thurmond spoke, Mr. Lott, then a House member from MS., told the home state political gathering that if the country had elected segregationist candidate ?“James?” Strom Thurmond to the presidency ?“30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today.?” Thurmond ran as the Dixiecrat candidate for president in 1948 on a platform calling for the continuation of segregation in the South (See: 12/8 & 10/2002).
11/3/1981 Coleman Young was re-elected Mayor of Detroit, MI., Thurman L. Milner was elected Mayor of Hartford, CT. and James Chase was elected Mayor of Spokane, WA.
11/3/1983 Jesse Jackson announced he was a candidate for the US Presidency, though unsuccessful in this and a later 1988 campaign, Jackson will win many Democratic state primaries and his candidacy will win him national attention and a platform for increased representation by Black-Americans in the Democratic Party.
11/3/1986 ?“Ash-Shiraa,?” a pro-Syrian Lebanese magazine, broke the story of US arms sales to Iran, a revelation that escalated into the Iran-Contra affair.
11/3/1992 Six Hispanic-Americans were elected to the US Congress including Henry Bonilla (R-TX, 1/3/1993 -?), former TV news report and Executive in New York City, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Executive Producer for Public Affairs at KENS-TV, Xavier Becerra (D-CA, 1/3/1993- ?), former LA Adm Asst for State Senator Art Torres and Deputy Attorney General, CA. Assemblyman (Cuban) Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL, 1/3/1993 - ?) former attorney, member Florida House of Representatives and Senate former attorney, member Florida House of Representatives and Senate, Luis Vicente Gutierrez (D-IL, 1/3/1993 - ?), former Illinois State social worker, Adm Asst to the Mayor of Chicago, co-founder, Westtown-26th Ward Independent Political Org, Chicago Alderman, Robert Menendez (D-NJ, 1/3/1993 - ?), former attorney, Union City, NJ Board of Education member, State Assemblyman and Senator and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA, 1/3/1993 - ? ), former Public Relations and Fund Raising Executive, California Assemblywoman
11/3/1992 Carol E. Moseley-Braun (D-IL) became the 1st Black woman, Black Democrat, 2nd Black elected to the US Senate since Reconstruction and the 4th Black US Senator in US history (3 Republicans and 1 Democrat)(See: 8/16/1947).
11/3/1992 Pedro Rosell?³ was elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
11/3/1997 The Japanese firm Sanyo Securities filed for bankruptcy, with more than $3 billion in liabilities. It was the 1st securities house to go bust since WW II.
11/3/1997 The US Supreme Court let stand California?’s groundbreaking Proposition 209, that banned racial and gender preferences in hiring and school admission.
11/3/1998 Hispanic Charles A. Gonzalez, former County Court at Law Judge and District Judge was elected to the US Congress (D-TX, 1/3/1999 - ?).
11/3/1998 Hispanic Grace F. Napolitano, former Norwalk City Council member, Mayor, CA. State Assemblywoman was elected to the US Congress (D-CA, 1/3/1999 - ?).
11/3/1998 Hispanic (Puerto Rican) Nydia Margarita Velazquez, former faculty member of the University of Puerto Rico, Adjunct Professor at Hunter College (CUNY) Special Asst to US Rep Edolphus Towns, National Director for the Migration Division Office of the Puerto Rican Dept of Labor and Human resources, Director for the Dept of the Puerto Rican Community Affairs in the US for the Commonwealth of PR was elected to the US Congress (D-NY, 1/3/1993 - ?).
11/3/1998 Cruz M. Bustamante (Dem), was the 1st Hispanic elected to statewide office in California in 120 years, when he was elected with California Governor Gary Davis (D) as Lt. Governor. Prior to becoming Lt. Governor he was also the 1st Hispanic Speaker of the CA Assembly in 120 years.
11/3/1998 Joe Rogers was elected Colorado?’s 1st Black Republican, 2nd Black, 44th Lt. Governor and youngest, at age 34, Lt. Governor in the country. Rogers was also the highest ranking Black State Office holder, of either Party, in the US.
11/3/1998 Jane Hull (R) elected Governor of Arizona with her term in office expiring in 1/2003. She was born on 8/8/1935.
11/3/1998 Jane Swift (R) was elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, she became Governor on 4/10/2001, when Governor Cellucci resigned to become the US Ambassador to Canada. Her term in office will expire in 1/2003. She was born on 2/24/1965.
11/3/1998 Black-American J.C. Watt, Jr. (R-OK) was reelected to the US Congress (House) and became the House Republican Conference Chairman.
11/3/2000 Black Entertainment Television (BET) cable a privately held company of Robert L. Johnson its founder and majority owner of BET Holdings II, Inc. was approached by Viacom, Inc to sell for $2.3 billion in stock and the assumption of $570 million in company debt. Mr Johnson would remain as Chairman and CEO after the deal as will Debra Lee, BET?’s President and COO.
11/3/2002 A new study of contacts between police and citizens during a 1-year period showed that Black, White and Hispanic pedestrians were stopped in almost equal proportion. But officers searched Whites about 49% of the time, Hispanics 59% and Blacks 63%. Those numbers, from the Denver Police Department's 1st racial profiling study were among the most telling of a group of statistics that critics were using to argue that the department racially profiled the people it stopped and searched. Nearly one week after the Police Department released its study, one of the 1st in the country to look at pedestrian stops, the report had not brought any consensus on racial profiling. In the hands of police officers and officials, the study's numbers showed the department was pretty evenhanded in how it stopped and dealt with the public. Interpreted by community leaders who had long suspected police of racial profiling and unnecessary harassment of law- abiding minorities, the numbers were proof of injustice.
11/3/2002 This time, the Vietnamese had invaded the US, with catfish and a bitter war had broken out for access to America's frying pans. Inexpensive Vietnamese catfish imports had soared, from 575,000 pounds 4 years ago to 20 million pounds, capturing as much as 20% of America's frozen catfish fillet market. More and more of the fish, grown in gigantic river pens in the Mekong Delta, were finding themselves on American barbecues, supplanting home-grown catfish raised in the Mississippi Delta. The American fishermen fought back, contending that the Vietnamese fish were not really catfish and persuading the US Congress to bar the Vietnamese from using that name. The American group was also pressing hard for import duties based on anti-dumping laws. The encounter seemed to have stunned Vietnam, where as many as 400,000 catfish farmers work in an industry that sent about 1/3 of its $1.8 billion in exports to the US. Vietnamese government statements condemned the moves as ?“an unfair protectionist act,?” a violation of the new trade pact and even ?“a new war, not to fight Communism but to combat Vietnamese catfish.?” Apart from the cries of outrage, the Vietnamese were watching and learning.
11/3/2003 The descendants of the Black Civil War heroine and abolitionist Harriet Tubman gained ground last week when the US Senate approved a $11,750 payment in an effort to remedy the fact that neither Tubman nor her relatives received a pension after she served as a spy and a scout in the Union Army. If president George W. Bush signed the appropriations bill, which had already been passed by the House, the money would help maintain the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, NY. But the money was not quite what Tubman's relatives and supporters were seeking. The pension, it turned out, was for her 2nd husband's military service, not hers. No one could say why Tubman never received a pension or why she was shorted on her husband's.
11/3/2003 FL. fruit juices and NC turkey were among products US companies were showing off in Cuba this week as they pressed to sell more farm products to the island. Representatives of 71 US firms from 18 states and Puerto Rico hoped their displays would persuade Cuban officials to buy more agricultural goods under an exception in the 42-year US trade embargo. The trade fair, which ran through 11/9/03, came as Congress was trying to open Cuba to American travelers, a move that went against White House efforts to enforce a travel ban and the US policy of isolating the communist country. On 10/30/03, the Senate voted 59 to 36 to bar the use of government money to enforce current travel restrictions. The House last month also voted to ease travel restrictions, but the White House had threatened a veto.
11/3/2003 Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, publicly endorsed the agreement opening the Iranian nuclear program to tougher inspections but threatened ?“a slap in the mouth?” for anyone who challenged the country's right to develop a peaceful atomic program. Khamenei, a senior Islamic cleric who succeeded the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as Supreme Leader, held ultimate power in Iran's theocratic government and the 10/21/03 pact with 3 European foreign ministers was widely understood to have his blessing. The deal averted a crisis just days before a deadline for Iran to fully disclose its nuclear program.
11/3/2003 US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell pressed the Nicaragua?’s President, Enrique Bola?±os to reduce its military arsenal, calling for the destruction of nearly 2,000 surface-to-air missiles accumulated when the Marxist Sandinista movement was in power. Bola?±os told reporters that he considered the missiles a risk to life and Nicaragua's reputation, but he stopped short of pledging to destroy the weapons. He said their fate was tied to upcoming regional negotiations over the balance of forces. In 2001, a shipment of 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles acquired from Nicaragua turned up in the hands of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a paramilitary group. The weapons were disguised with false paperwork. Midway through a quick visit to 3 Central American countries, Powell was pushing the message that governments in the region must scale back their militaries, fight corruption and reform their economies if they expected to pull their sputtering economies out of trouble. SOS Powell became the 1st US secretary of state to visit the country since 1992 and Bola?±os spoke of the 100 Nicaraguan land mine specialists and doctors attached to the US-led occupation force in Iraq.
11/3/2003 Ella Bully-Cummings, 46, took the helm of the Detroit?’s 4,700-person department, making Detroit the largest US city with a female Police Chief. Bully-Cummings, joined the Detroit police at 19, inherited a department struggling to remake itself and win community trust. In recent years, the city had seen a string of deadly police shootings of civilians. And only last week, a federal grand jury returned an indictment containing dozens of additional charges against a group of officers accused of stealing money and drugs from suspects during illegal searches. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick named Bully-Cummings interim Chief, but indicated he intended to make the appointment permanent. She grew up poor, the 2nd of 8 children of a Japanese mother and a Black father. At one point, before the youngest child was born, the family lived in a one-bedroom house, she recalled. Bully-Cummings was 1 of about 150 women Chiefs in 18,000 police departments nationwide, said Margaret Moore, Director of the National Center for Women and Policing. With a population of an estimated 925,000, Detroit was the biggest US city ever to have a female Police Chief. Michigan had 7 other women police Chiefs. The Detroit department was about 25% women. As she worked her way up through the force, Bully-Cummings also pursued her education, graduating from college in 1993 and from law school in 1998. In 1999, frustrated with the slow pace of change in the department, Bully-Cummings left her job as a Precinct Commander to enter private practice, where she specialized in employment discrimination and labor law. Bully-Cummings returned to the department in 2002 to become an Assistant Chief in charge of such areas as Finances, Personnel and Technology. She said Oliver's commitment to reform convinced her to return.
11/3/2003 A decade after he served as the nation's 1st Black elected Governor, L. Douglas Wilder, 72, was back in politics in the community where his civic rise began. Wilder was pushing a referendum on the ballot to have Richmond's mayor chosen in a citywide election rather than appointed by the City Council. The proposal had taken on racial overtones, creating an uproar among some Black leaders in the former capitol of the Confederacy. Critics, including Virginia's chapter of the NAACP, said the change could violate the 1965 Voting Rights Act that helped Blacks get political representation. They feared it would allow a heavily financed White candidate to become the chief executive of a city that was nearly 60% Black and had a majority-Black council since 1977. Supporters argued it would revive a city troubled by rising crime rates and economic woes and clean up what Wilder called a ?“cesspool of corruption and inefficiency.?” Two council members were indicted that year on federal charges. Most city managers had advanced degrees and years of experience, while elected officials only needed to have the ?“political wherewithal,?” said Michele Frisby, spokeswoman for the International City-County Management Association in Washington, D.C. At a news conference at City Hall, 6 Black elected officials, including US Rep. Robert C. Scott, scoffed at the proposal, saying it will not likely survive federal scrutiny even if it passed. Virginia was one of 7 states that must have any voting changes approved by the US Justice Department because of their history of racial discrimination.
11/3/2003 Controversy was brewing on Capitol Hill over naming the visitor's center for the late Strom Thurmond (R-SC). Though lawmakers had not discussed the issue openly, it promised to be hot once the visitor's center was completed and opened in 2005. US Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD.), who Chaired the Congressional Black Caucus, opposed naming the center for Thurmond, according to his spokeswoman. So did some major civil rights organizations. ?“The NAACP opposes the bestowing of this high honor upon a man of such low character and led by the South Carolina NAACP state conference of branches, is working hard to see that neither the House nor Senate bill becomes law. The US Capitol is meant to be a building of the people, all the people of the US and to name its visitors' center after a man who fought so hard for exclusion and division is insulting to American citizens as well as the building itself,?” said the group in a statement. Thurmond joined the Republican Party in 1964. As it became clear in the 1970s that Blacks were not going back to the pre-civil rights era, he moderated some of his positions and rhetoric. Thurmond became one of the 1st southern senators to hire Black staffers. In 1978, he voted for a constitutional amendment on D.C. statehood. He supported a federal holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and extension of the Voting Rights Act. But Thurmond never apologized for his anti-Black rhetoric of the past and was cold toward human rights movements in Zimbabwe and South Africa. He supported Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, but he voted against and spoke against the late Thurgood Marshall when President Lyndon Johnson nominated him to the high court in 1966. The bill, House Resolution 2661, to name the center after Thurmond was being sponsored by Rep. Gersham Barrett (R-SC) and a Senate resolution was being worked on by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), Thurmond's successor. The Capitol visitors' center was expected to cost $400 million and to host more than 3 million visitors yearly. It would be a modern facility on the east side of the Capitol.
11/4/1872 Four Blacks were elected to major offices in Louisiana elections: Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, Governor, C.C Antoine, Lieutenant Governor; P.G. Deslonde, Secretary of State and W.B. Brown, Superintendent of Public Education.
11/4/1876 ?“The Disputed Election?” between Republican Rutherford B. Haynes and Democrat Samuel J. Tiden. At that time the Republicans were the liberals and concentrated in the North, except for the solidly Republican Black-Americans freedpeople of the South and the Democrats were the conservatives, and in the south they were desperate to regain White control from the newly enfranchised Blacks. As a result of ?“The Disputed Election,?” ?“The Compromise of 1877?” was consummated on 2/26/1877 with the blessings Republican President-elect Rutherford B. Haynes and he also agreed to a appoint a former Confederate general to his cabinet. The long sad story of Black betrayal began with a disputed election (Also SEE 1878).
11/4/1879 T. Elkins received a patent on the refrigeration apparatus.
11/4/1896 Carlos Garcia, future President of the Philippines (1957-61), was born (d: 6/14/1971 at age 74).
11/4/1922 The entrance to King Tutankhamen?’s tomb was discovered in Egypt.
11/4/1924 Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming was elected the nation?’s 1st woman Governor; she served the remaining term of her husband, William B. Ross, who died in office.
11/4/1942(?) William Levi Dawson was the 1st Black-American elected to the US Congress as a Democrat from Chicago and served for 27 years. During his service he was selected as the Chair of the US Congressional House Committee on Governmental Operations.
11/4/1952 Luis Mu?±oz Mar?n was reelected Governor of Puerto Rico for another 4 years.
11/4/1952 Ella Tambussi Grasso (D) was elected to the Connecticut house of Representatives and served until 1957.
11/4/1953 Hulan Jack became the 1st Black Manhattan Borough President in New York City.
11/4/1957 Ella Tambussi Grasso (D) was elected Secretary of State for Connecticut and served until 1969.
11/4/1961 Hispanic Henry Barbosa Gonzalez, former operator of a language and business consultant service, Chief Probation officer of Bexar County, member of the San Antonio City Council and State Senator, was elected in a special election to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Paul J. Kilday in the US Congress (D-TX, 11/4/1961 - 1/3/1999).
11/4/1962 Asian-Americans Daniel K. Inouye became the US Senator and Spark Matsunaga became the US Representative from the State of Hawaii.
11/4/1962 Edward Roybal of Los Angeles, CA., was elected to the US Congress.
11/4/1963 The new government in Saigon was recognized by the US.
11/4/1969(?) Ella Tambussi Grasso (D-Conn) was elected to the US Congress and served until 1974.
11/4/1969 Howard N. Lee and Charles Evers were elected the 1st Black-American Mayors of Chapel Hill, NC. and Fayette, MS. respectively.
11/4/1974(?) Democrat Polly Baca-Barragon became the 1st Mexican-American woman elected to the Colorado House of Representatives.
11/4/1974(?) Asian-American March Fong Eu, was elected to the Office of Secretary of State for CA.
11/4/1980 Carlos Romero Barcel?³ was re-elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
11/4/1982 Rayford Logan, was an educator, historian, and author of numerous books on Black- Americans, including the Dictionary of American Negro Biography and among his many honors was a 1980 NAACP Spingarn Medal, died in Washington, DC.
11/4/1988 Bill and Camille Cosby donated $20 million to Spelman College in Atlanta, GA., it was the largest ever individual donation to a historically Black college or university. The donation was used to build a student center.
11/4/1995 Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister who had worked for peace with Palestinian and Arab neighbors, was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli student after delivering a speech at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
11/4/1996 Two Hispanic-Americans were elected to the US Congress including Loretta Sanchez (D-CA, 1/3/1997 - ?), former Financial Analyst and Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), Vietnam Vet and former US Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent, member of the Canutillo School Board
11/4/1996 US Representative Patricia Schroeder was in the process of completing the end of 24 years of service, 12 terms, in the US House of Representatives.
11/4/1996 Pedro Rosell?³ was re-elected with a majority of the vote, the largest margin of any pro-Statehood Governor in Puerto Rican history.
11/4/1996 Two Black sisters, writer Janet Allen and poet Linda Bryant, of Aurora, CO. claimed they were the great-great-great-great-granddaughters of George Washington by way of West Ford, their great-great-great-great-grandfather, who was alleged to have been the illegitimate son of George Washington.
11/4/1997(?) Chuck E. Burris, a native of Louisiana, became the 1st Black-American Mayor of Stone Mountain, GA., a town with an infamous/famous background including the world?’s largest exposed granite monolith (825-foot high dome), a Rushmore-esque relief of Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson, the birthplace (1915-65) of the modern-day Ku Klux Klan and a town that currently was predominately Black.
11/4/1997 Emmanuel Onunwor, 40, became the 1st African-born (Nigeria) Black Mayor of a US city, East Cleveland, OH., prior to this, in 1995 he was elected to the East Cleveland City Council. Onunwor's activist career began early. He fought as a child for the secessionist Republic of Biafra against his Nigeria homeland in a civil war that raged from 1967 to 1970. The poorly armed Biafran forces were defeated. He later made his way to Cleveland, to be with his sister and brother-in-law. He earned a master's degree in urban studies at Cleveland State University and landed a city planning job. In the early1990s he became East Cleveland Community Development Director and then the Mayor's Chief of Staff (See: 8/20/2001).
11/4/2001 Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was one of the 1st leaders to call US President Bush after the terrorist attacks on 9/11/, said, in concluding his 2-day trip, that his trip to Washington was to convey Nigeria's solidarity and support to the US over the terrorist attacks. In his remarks, Bush said his Nigerian counterpart, had remained a steadfast friend of America and its people and that he was aware of Nigeria's large Muslim population, the US leader explained that the war on terrorism was not against Islam which, he noted, teaches peace and not violence. President Obasanjo expressed concern that these terrorist threat came at a time Africa had begun to see improvements in its political and economic situation. The President listed the improvements as the reduction in the tension among the Mano River Union countries, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia; the resolution of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea; the completion of the peace process in Burundi and the subsequent installation of a transitional government. Also in his effort to expand the scope of investment in the oil sector, President Obasanjo and his Special Adviser on Petroleum Resources, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman had held separate meetings with American oil giants Exxon and Mobil, both of which were keenly looking forward to investing in the nation's oil and gas sector and were looking forward to investing more, especially in the gas industry.
11/4/2001 The irony was, Georgia Glaze, 41, worked to help others find jobs. Now, the
Elkhart, Ind., social worker was unemployed too. With this year's cooling economy, unemployment had become an all too common status for people like Glaze, who lost her job in 6/2001, well before the 9/11 tragedy. But the plunging economy since then demonstrated just how much the aftermath of the attach hit Black Americans. Released Labor Department figures recorded the largest jump in unemployment in 21 years. While the overall, half-point increase sent shivers through the country, the full point jump in the Black rate was twice as
devastating. America's structural inequities consistently ran the Black rate at twice as high as the White rate. To make matters worse, the latest figures showed Black joblessness growing at double the White rate. The Black unemployment rate for 11/2001 was 9.7%. That represented more than 1.5 million individuals like Glaze, a wife and mother who had been on her job since she graduated from college16 years ago.
11/4/2002 China?’s Communist Party leaders were courting entrepreneurs, trying to keep control of a society that depended more on capitalist dynamism than on government dictates. But more than that, the party was looking to transform itself to hold on to power at a time when the rhythms of capitalism were pulsing through Chinese society. The party leaders intended to enshrine Mr. Jiang's theory of the "three represents," declaring that the party now represented capitalists as much as the workers and peasants who formed its base for more than 80 years. For now, people in private business would probably represent only a small minority of the party's 66 million members. But already entrepreneurs were on their way to replacing barefoot doctors and selfless soldiers as party icons. A few could even find themselves elevated to the Central Committee. With the opening to business leaders, China's leaders were blurring the class distinctions they once considered sacred, perhaps jettisoning ideology altogether in a race for relevance.
11/4/2002 Representatives of 45 countries, including the US, that produced, sold or traded in diamonds were about to endorse the beginnings of a system to prevent Africa's warlords from fueling their conflicts through so-called blood diamonds. The US alone accounted for half the world's $60-billion-a-year trade in stones sold as jewelry after rough diamonds were cut and polished into sparkling gems. The representatives met at Interlaken, Switzerland, 2 years after a passionate debate over illicit diamond sales galvanized the gem industry and forced even the giant De Beers cartel into a major shift of corporate strategy. The nations, were to give formal approval to new rules intended to make sure that, from the gravel of distant diamond mines to the jewelry stores of Fifth Avenue, diamonds would be certified as untainted. The goal was to prevent illicit diamonds being used to pay for the weapons used in wars, from Angola to Sierra Leone. But many of the advocacy groups that 1st inspired the debate charged that a system of written warranties that was offered by the diamond-cutting and -trading business to complement governmental efforts were critically flawed because it could not be audited. The meeting was also to discuss what was known as the Kimberley Process, under which government and industry figures had been trying to formulate legally binding rules. The US government had taken a particular interest in pressing the nations to introduce a certification system by 1/1/03. Their concerns coincided with persistent but largely unsubstantiated reports that operatives of Al Qaeda had laundered money through diamonds mined illicitly in Sierra Leone.
11/04/2002 A major breakthrough in the history of the cooperation of the Nile Basin Countries was realised with the signing of the Headquarters Agreement between the Government of Uganda and the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). The Agreement meant to facilitate the establishment and operation of the Nile Basin Initiative Secretariat at Entebbe, Uganda, availed the NBI the necessary legal recognition to enable it perform its functions and effectively facilitate the work and programs of the Nile Basin Initiative. The Agreement granted the NBI diplomatic status within Uganda thus recognising the NBI as an international legally constituted institution that enjoyed the privileges accorded to such Institutions (See: 5/7/1929, 2/1999, 11/4/2002, 2/4/2004 and 3/8/2004).
11/4/2003 ?“An Africana Action Alert (?). Miguel Estrada, William Pryor, Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown: President Bush's list of ultra-conservative judicial nominees just keeps growing. His latest just might be the most extreme yet.?” Claude A. Allen, 43, ?“a Black man as conservative as Jesse Helms and with hardly any relevant legal experience? Haven't we seen this before? The ABA has conferred upon Allen its lowest passing grade and his nomination is increasingly being seen for what it is: yet another cynical attempt by the Bush administration to install far-right judges in critical courts while it has the chance. Selecting mostly women and people of color to fill these roles is the really contemptuous part, as it allows Bush's GOP friends to attempt to paint as ?“racist?” and ?“sexist?” those who oppose judicial nominees whose positions place them to the right of nearly the entire US population?” (See: 10/25/2003).
11/4/2003 Supporters of opposition candidates in Mauritania's presidential election marked the end of the electoral campaign by clashing with police. The campaign was also marred by accusations of harassment of leading opposition candidate Mohamed Ould Haidallah. Police raided the home of Mr. Haidallah to search for weapons. They found what his spokesman, Ali Ould Sneba, described as a few legitimate souvenirs. But the police said they found weapons in Mr. Haidallah's home and arrested his son. Mr. Sneba called the raid a deliberate plot by the government to stain the reputation of Mr. Haidallah before the election. Mr. Haidallah was a former military ruler of Mauritania who was overthrown in 1984 by the current President, Mr. Taya. Mr. Haidallah had assembled a broad coalition of supporters ranging from reformists to Islamic radicals. Besides Mr. Haidallah, the incumbent President faced 2 other main challengers: Ahmed Ould Daddah, the half-brother of Mauritania's 1st President and Massoaud Ould Boulkheir, a descendant of slaves. Two minor candidates were running in the 6-man race.
11/4/2003 In a closely watched mayoral election in Philadelphia, incumbent John F. Street (D) easily won reelection against Sam Katz (R), the businessman he narrowly defeated 4 years ago. With 95% of the vote counted, Street held a commanding lead of 58% to 42%. The Philadelphia contest attracted national attention after the disclosure that the FBI, as part of an investigation of municipal corruption, had placed a bug in Street's office. The disclosure appeared to energize Street's campaign in the closing days of the contest. NYC voters also went to the polls to elect 51 City Council members. In the most hotly contested race, in Brooklyn, the Working Families Party achieved a landmark victory when its candidate, Letitia James, was elected to the Council even though she was listed only on that party's line. That race, to succeed murdered councilman, James E. Davis, was the 1st victory by a 3rd-party candidate for City Council in a quarter-century and Ms. James won over Mr. Davis's brother, Geoffrey A. Davis.
11/4/2003 Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga suspended Parliament and deployed troops around the capitol after firing Defense Minister Tilak Marapone, Interior Minister John Amaratunga and Information Minister Imthiaz Bakeer Markar, 3 key cabinet Ministers who were trying to coax Tamil rebels back into talks to end a 20-year civil war. However, the 3 fired Ministers still held other Cabinet-level portfolios. President Kumaratunga made the moves while her political rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, was in Washington to meet with president Bush. The President had been extremely critical of the PM?’s handing of peace talks with the rebels, saying he made too many concessions. While the PM denounced the move, President Kumaratunga went on state-run television, insisting, ?“I was compelled to take this action to safeguard the security of our motherland.?” Kumaratunga suspended the 225-seat Parliament, where her opponents had a thin 2-seat majority, for 2 weeks. Kumaratunga had been severely critical of how the PM had handled peace efforts with the Tamil Tiger rebels, arguing that his government had given too many concessions without ensuring that the Tigers abandon their armed struggle for self-rule. For example, she accused the PM of entertaining rebel demands for autonomy without insisting they disarm first. Wickremesinghe said the President's ?“irresponsible and precipitous action?” would not deter his administration's peace efforts. The US and Britain had backed peace talks. Washington had branded the Tigers a terrorist organization. On 10/31/03, the rebels submitted a plan for an interim administration in the war-battered northeast. They wanted powers to collect taxes and control the administration of the northeast, where most of the island?’s 3.2 million minority Tamils lived. The rebels signed a cease-fire agreement with Wickremesinghe's government in 2/2002, halting 2 decades of fighting. The Tigers launched their war to seek an independent homeland for Hindu Tamils, arguing discrimination at the hands of the Buddhist Sinhalese majority. The rebels dropped their demand for independence, saying they would settle for regional autonomy, during 5 rounds of peace talks. But the rebels walked out of those talks in 4/03, saying the government had not done enough to resettle refugees and redevelop Tamil areas. Expanded autonomy was a key rebel demand for returning to the peace talks.
November:
11/5/1860 Prior to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President on 11/6/1860, there were 15 Presidents who had served for a total of 72 years of which 49 years were controlled by southerns primary from Virginia (7) and Tennessee (2). Non-southerns had controlled the Presidency for 23 years, ergo, how can anyone say southerns were discriminated against and pushed into declaring their secession from the Union.
11/5/1867 The 1st Reconstruction Constitutional Convention opened in Montgomery, AL. with 18 Black-Americans and 90 Whites in attendance.
11/5/1872 Suffragist Susan B. Anthony was fined $100. for attempting to vote in a Presidential election.
11/5/1917 The US Supreme Court (Buchanan vs Warley) stuck down the Louisville, KY. ordinance mandating segregated neighborhoods, which began in 12/1910 with Baltimore?’s ordinance.
11/5/1926 Negro History Week was initiated by Carter G. Woodson.
11/5/1950 Winnebago Corporal Mitchell Red Cloud, Jr. with Company E, 19th Infantry Regiment in Korea became the 4th Native-American winner in the 20th century and was awarded the Medal of Honor while on a ridge guarding his company command post when surprised by Chinese forces, sounding the alarm and stayed in his position firing his automatic rifle at point blank range to check the assault, he gave his company time to consolidate their defenses, refusing assistance until fatally wounded (Awarded: 4/25/1951)(b: 7/2/1924, Hatfield, WI.).
11/5/1956 British and French troops landed in Egypt during fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces around the Suez Canal. A cease-fire was declared 2 days later.
11/5/1956 The 15-minute ?“Nat King Cole Show?” premiered starring the popular singer, became the 1st network variety series hosted by an Black-American star, ran until 6/1957 and reappeared in 7/1957 in a half-hour format but was later canceled due to lack of support by advertisers.
11/5/1968 Luis A. Ferr?©, leader of the Pro-Statehood Party, was elected Governor of Puerto Rico. It was the 1st time a pro-statehood candidate had received a majority.
11/5/1968 Eight Black-American males and the 1st Black-American female, Shirley Chisholm (D-NY), were elected to the U.S. Congress, including previously elected MA. US Senator Edward Brooke (R-MA), it was the largest number of Black-American US Representatives to serve in Congress since the 44th Congress of 1875-1877.
11/5/1974 Ella T. Grasso was elected Governor of Connecticut, the 1st woman to win a gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband.
11/5/1974 George L. Brown of Colorado (1975-79) and Mervyn Dymally of California (1975-78) who prior to this election had been in the CA. Assembly (1963-66) and Senate (67-74), were the 1st Black-American Lieutenant Governors elected in the 20th century, while Walter E. Washington (1974-79) became the 1st Black-American to be elected Mayor of the District of Columbia and Harold Ford (1/3/1975-1/3/1997) was elected to Congress from Tennessee, the 1st Black-American from the state who also built a powerful local political organization that helped elect Memphis?’ 1st Black Mayor.
11/5/1985 Zanzibari Ali Hasan Mwinyi was sworn in as President of Tanzania.
11/5/1996 Chinese-American Gary Locke was elected Washington?’s 21st Governor, making him the 1st Chinese-American Governor in US history.
11/5/1996 From 11/5/1968 to the present only about 12% of Black-Americans remained and voted Republican, while about 80% voted Democratic and about 8% were Independents.
11/5/1996 Wayne Ward Ford, who grew up an ?“at risk?” kid on the mean streets of and was apart of them in Washington, DC, who turned his life around, was elected to the Iowa State Legislature. He was a Democrat, the only Black member and the Executive Director and Founder of Urban Dreams.
11/5/1998 Japan?’s already-low interest rates fall below zero on certain types of borrowing.
11/5/1998 A study showed strong genetic evidence that at least one child of the Black slave Sally Hemings, was fathered by US President Thomas Jefferson.
11/5/2001 Congo's 2 main rebel groups, the Rwanda-backed rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy and the Uganda-backed Congolese Liberation Movement, agreed in Kigali, Rwanda to set up a 4,102-strong force to track down and disarm insurgents from neighboring Rwanda and Burundi based in the Congo as they moved toward integration. The joint force would also attempt to disarm pro-Congolese government tribal militia, known as Mayi Mayi, fighting in Congo's 3-year war, RCD spokesman Kin Kiey Mulumba said. It was the most significant sign of cooperation between the rebel groups since they split 6 months after the conflict began in 8/1998. The parties also had been discussing political integration, officials said. The peace-agreement had gained momentum since Kabila's assassination in 1/2001 and the succession of his son Joseph, but Rwanda said it would not withdraw its forces from Congo until the Rwandan rebels had been disarmed. Under the 1999 cease-fire agreement, Congo's government was supposed to disarm and demobilize Rwandan and Burundian Hutu rebels operating in territories it control. But the government controlled less than half of it country, the 3rd largest nation on the African continent, while the Congolese rebels control most of northern and eastern Congo. On 9/12/01, the government said it had rounded up 3,000 Rwandan rebels, a fraction of the thousands of Rwandan and Burundian rebels believed to be in Congo. The Congolese rebels' force would begin tracking down the Rwandan and Burundian insurgents from 12/25, Mulumba said. Those caught would be handed over to the UN mission deployed in Congo to monitor the 1999 cease-fire accord. ?“Formation of a special force is significant since it demonstrates that the Congolese are able to solve their problems on their own,?” Mulumba said.
11/5/2001 Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken, 50, who was White and Courtis Fuller, 44, who was Black and a political neophyte, were both registered Democrats locked in a tight race to lead a city torn by racial divisions since the fatal police shooting of an unarmed Black man. Both were former TV news anchors at the same broadcast station, but that's where the similarities ended. Both downplayed race in their campaigns, but that has been difficult. The shooting sparked 3 nights of riots in which dozens of people were injured and more than 800 were arrested. Luken stressed the need for a strong, experienced mayor and he tried to deflect criticism from Fuller about his leadership during and after the riots. Fifteen Black criminals males, who preyed on Black neighborhoods, and a 12-year-old boy had died in confrontations with Cincinnati police since 1995; 11 of them threatened officers with weapons. The Justice Department was investigating police practices to determine if the department had violated the civil rights of citizens.
11/5/2001 The US was committed to building closer military ties with India, an ally in the global campaign against terrorism, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told India's Defense Minister, George Fernandes. The secretary also discussed possible sales of American military equipment to India. Mr. Rumsfeld's quick visit at the end of a 4-day tour of 5 nations seemed intended to reassure India that the intense American partnership with Pakistan, India's archrival, would not come at India's expense and to remind India that it had a long-term interest in staying on America's good side. Expanding military cooperation between India and the US was also part of a broader American strategy predating the 9/11 attacks to deepen relations with India on a range of issues that included trade, terrorism and scientific cooperation. The mere fact that the secretary of defense called on India was a measure of how dramatically US policies had changed in recent months. After India conducted nuclear tests in 5/1998, the US imposed economic and military sanctions, now mostly lifted, that aborted earlier efforts by the Clinton administration to bring the 2 nations closer together. No American defense secretary had come to India since 1/1995. American officials had worried that the conflict between India, which had more Muslin citizens than Pakistan, and Pakistan, nuclear-armed enemies, could flare into war if there were a major terrorist attack on India by an Islamic militant groups based in Pakistan. President Bush asked the 2 countries to ?“stand down?” last month after intense fighting broke out in Kashmir.
11/5/2001 Liberal Party candidate, Enrique Bolanos, 73-year-old businessman, whose property was once taken away by the Sandinista regime that also jailed him, won Nicaragua's presidency over Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista candidate attempting a comeback 11 years after losing power. Ortega conceded defeat in his 3rd consecutive election defeat and supporters of the victorious Liberal Party candidate, chanted ?“Strikeout! Strikeout!?” as they celebrated. Ortega promised to continue working for national reconciliation and for a free-market economy from within the National Assembly for his Sandinista party, which retained a solid core of support in Nicaragua.
11/5/2001 There was a need for a new, special relationship between the Caribbean and multilateral financial institutions, Barbados's Prime Minister, Owen Arthur, said in Bridgetown. Arthur made the comment at a news conference that was shared with Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Horst Kohler and a number of Prime Ministers from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). They were in Barbados for the inauguration of the IMF-backed Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (Cartac), an initiative between the major financial institutions and regional governments aimed at boosting development. Many Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries, including Jamaica and Guyana, had sought assistance from the IMF over the years and harsh conditionalities, including public sector jobs cuts and cutbacks on government spending on social programmes, had often characterized that assistance. There was a perception, therefore, that the IMF programmes had done more harm than good for developing countries. The IMF boss admitted that the institution had made some mistakes in its dealings with developing countries, but said: ?“... Our philosophy is that we want to learn from our mistakes. No institution, no person, no managing director of the IMF, no prime minister is perfect.?”
11/5/2002 Michael S. Steele (R) will become the 1st Black elected to statewide office in Maryland history and was the 3rd time a Black had been elected as Lieutenant Governor of a state, Colorado had 2 Black Lieutenant Governors, 1 Democrat and 1 Republican. Steele ran on a ticket with Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who became the 1st Republican to be elected Governor of Maryland in more than 30 years (See: 10/9/2002).
11/5/2002 With 97% of the precincts counted, H. Carl McCall was trailing badly with 33% of the vote behind Governor George Pataki who had 50% and an Independent who had 14%. AP declared Pataki the winner at 10:25 p.m. McCall, a onetime State Senator and New York City Board of Education President who had been state Comptroller for the past 9 years, conceded just after 11 p.m.(See: 10/7/1935).
11/5/2002 Former Democratic Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, the only Black in a US Senate race, was defeated by Republican state Attorney General John Cornyn, for the seat held by retiring US Senor Phil Gramm (R-TX). Democrat Tony Sanchez, 59, was defeated by Republican Governor Rick Perry, 52, who won the backing of Texas voters for the job he had done for the past 2 years. The wild race in which Sanchez had sought to become the 1st Hispanic Governor of Texas which ended with Sanchez having 39% and Perry having 58% of the vote ( See: 4/10/2002 and 10/25/2002).
11/5/2002 Hawaii voted Linda Lingle as the 1st female Governor for the state and also made her the 1st Republican in the office in 40 years. Republicans Lingle and James Aiona took the early lead for the state's top office and ended up winning with a few thousand votes more than Democrats Mazie Hirono and Matt Matsunaga (See: 9/22/2002).
11/5/2002 In Massachusetts, voters overwhelmingly approved a English-immersion ballot question, Hispanic voters said no. Exit polls by the University of Massachusetts show 92% of nearly 600 Hispanic voters questioned voted down the measure (See: 11/7/2002).
11/6/1844 The Dominican Republic was granted its independence by Spain.
11/6/1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected the 1st Republican President of the US, on a platform geared toward the Fugitive Slave Act and the enslavement of Whites, as well as Blacks, captured under that law and their alleged return to the south, thus, assuring the secession of southern states and the coming of Civil War.
11/6/1861 Jefferson Davis was elected to a 6-year term as president of the Confederate States of America.
11/6/1868 Jonathan Gibbs, educator, was appointed Secretary of State by the Governor of Florida.
11/6/1884 Abolitionist, activist and author William Wells Brown, thought to have been the 1st Black to be published, who wrote his own autobiographical slave narrative, a novel on Jefferson?’s slave mistress, a travel history on Europe, died at age 70(?) in Chelsea, MA. ( b: 1814(?) near Lexington, KY to a Black slave mother and a White man).
11/6/1900 James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson composed "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," that will become known as the "Negro National Anthem."
11/6/1906 Three companies of Black-American soldiers who were involved in the Brownsville, TX. riots, were dishonorably discharged by US President Theodore Roosevelt, whom they had saved in Cuba, a former ally and follow combatant.
11/6/1913 Mohandas K. Gandhi was arrested as he led a march and strikes by Asian-Indian workers in South Africa in defiance of discriminatory laws and non-acknowledgment of Hindu and Moslem marriages.
11/6/1920 James Weldon Johnson became the 1st Black-American Executive Secretary of the NAACP.
11/6/1928 Oscar DePriest (R) was elected to the 71st US Congress from Illinois' First Congressional District (Chicago), the 1st Black-American to win a seat in the US House of Representatives in the 20th century, before becoming a U.S. Representative, DePriest was the 1st Black-American to serve on the Chicago City Council, having been elected alderman of the 2nd Ward in 1915.
11/6/1946 Chester Higgins, future Black-American photographer who will document the Civil Rights Movement and become a staff photographer for The New York Times, was born in AL.
11/6/1956 Luis Mu?±oz Mar?n was reelected Governor of Puerto Rico for a third 4 year term.
11/6/1956 Black-Americans (those allowed to vote) in relative large numbers, about 40%, went back to voting Republican largely because Republican President D.D. Eisenhower had (allegedly) signed new civil rights legislation and approximately 55% voted Democratic
11/6/1962 Edward W. Brooke was elected Attorney General of Massachusetts, Otis M. Smith was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court, Gerald Lamb was elected Treasurer of Connecticut, 5 Black-Americans were elected to the US House of Representatives and Augustus "Gus" F. Hawkins, became the 1st Black-American US Congressman from the West (Los Angeles, California).
11/6/1962 The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning South Africa for its apartheid policies and recommended member states apply economic sanctions.
11/6/1973 Coleman Young, former MI State Senator who worked for and supported school desegregation, open housing and pro-labor legislation, was elected the 1st Black-American Mayor of Detroit.
11/6/1973, Thomas Bradley was elected as the 1st Black-American Mayor of Los Angeles, CA., due to his masterful use of a multi-racial coalition because Black-Americans at the time were not a large segment of the Los Angeles?’ population.
11/6/1976 Benjamin L. Hooks was chosen Executive Director of the National Association of Colored People (NAACP), succeeding Roy Wilkins.
11/6/1984 Rafael Hern?¡ndez Col?³n was elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
11/6/1989 Was declared a Biddy Mason Day and a memorial of her achievements was unveiled at the Broadway Spring Center located between Spring Street and Broadway at 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA (See: 8/15/1818 and 3/27/1988).
11/6/1990 Harvey Gantt, former Mayor of Charlotte, NC, lost his Senate race to incumbent Jesse Helms and the opportunity to become the 1st Black-American Senator from the South since Reconstruction, Barbara-Rose Collins and Maxine Waters were elected to the US Congress from their home districts in MI and CA, respectively, while Eleanor Holmes Norton was elected as a non-voting delegate to the US House of Representatives from the District of Columbia.
11/6/1990 Sharon Pratt Dixon (D) was elected the 1st Black-American female Mayor of Washington, DC.
11/6/1992 Vernon Jordan along with Warren Christopher were asked to lead the White House transition team by President-elect William Jefferson Clinton.
11/6/2001 Christopher Henshilwood, an archaeologist from the South African Museum in Cape Town and a member of the team that made this latest discovery suggested that a collection of bone tools dating back 70,000 years could turn the accepted view of human evolution on its head. The intricately-worked tools, found in a seaside cave on the southern tip of South Africa, show that our early human ancestors were far more sophisticated than previously thought (See: 70,000 years ago).
11/6/2001 Abner McWhorter, 31, had volumes to say to Blacks about computers and technology so the Detroit entrepreneur launched OurPC, to show Black families how personal computers could enhance everyday life. Cyber Dialogue, a NY- based company that provided online customer relationship management analysis and consulting, estimated about 26% of Black-Americans had Internet access. That number trailed 46% of White and 56% of Asian-American and Pacific Islander households, according to a 1998 Department of Commerce study. McWhorter?’s magazine would have more user-friendly content and less techno- speak. It would have news and feature articles on the latest cool gadgets and online shopping, as well as listings for sites that had information on education, entertainment, personal finance, health and travel. Some of the magazine's articles could be found at BlackVoices.com (www.blackvoices.com), an online portal and at www.ourpc.com, the magazine's new Web site. The magazine boasted 50,000 paid subscribers and it already had landed major advertisers, including Microsoft and Mercedes-Benz. An annual subscription was $16.99.
11/6/2001 The 1st batch of 200 Ghanaian troops has left Accra for peacekeeping duties in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) military officials said, adding that the next contingent would leave Accra next Monday. They will be in the war-ravaged nation for 6 months. Reconciliation talks aimed at ending Congo's bitter war were due to resume in South Africa but no date had been set. Those talks were seen as a key aspect of the peace process under a ceasefire accord reached in 1999 in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.
11/6/2001 The concept of trading sans (without) borders had began to take a firm root in Africa with the establishment of a free trade area by Nigeria and the Republic of Benin Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. The initiative, a part of the fast track programme introduced by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo last year, was to ultimately forge the integration of the people on the continent by fostering smoother economic relations by the different governments. With the programme, persons, goods and services originating from the affected countries would no longer attract tariff. According to Chief Bimbola Ogunkelu, Minister for Co-Operation and Integration in Africa, some of the projects which had reached various stages of implementation were: a rail link from Lagos to Accra with possible extension to Dakar through Abidjan; regional airline project (Ecoair) to ease air transportation; Ecomarine to enhance marine transportation; West African Gas Pipeline to boost electricity supply for industrial and domestic uses; a West African power pool to boost electricity supply; a project to further improve telecommunications facilities named Intelcom II and the trans- coastal and trans-Sahelian highways to facilitate land transportation.
11/6/2001 Mr. Guo Jinlong, who was the Communist Party Secretary of Tibet said that a determined influx of investment from Beijing over the next decade would bring prosperity and social harmony to Tibet and he dismissed any notion that the money was intended to dilute the culture of a region occupied by Chinese Communist troops more than 50 years ago. ?“Conditions for large numbers of Tibetans are still quite backward,?” Guo Jinlong, said in a rare interview inside the sprawling government compound here. ?“This is all for the good of the people and to strengthen national unity.?” Mr. Guo, provided details of a strategy adopted by Chinese leaders last summer: to put Tibet on a fast track to development while giving no ground to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader who fled Tibet during an uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
11/6/2001 Papers from the career of Jackie Robinson, who erased the color line in Major League Baseball, became part of the US Library of Congress. Robinson's widow, Rachel Robinson and their daughter Sharon joined Librarian James H. Billington in recalling a life of struggle that went well beyond the playing fields. Robinson's daughter pointed to the sometimes forgotten episode during World War II when 2nd Lt. Jackie Robinson, who worked with heavyweight champion Joe Louis to set up officer training for Blacks, refused to move to the back of a bus. ?“I refused to move because I recalled a letter from Washington which states that there is to be no segregation on army posts,'?” he wrote to Walter White, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The bus driver insisted. So did the lieutenant. ?“He had broken several of the (Jim Crow) laws and he was ... taken off the bus and there was a confrontation and he had to defend himself (at a court-martial),?” his daughter said, adding that he ultimately won and was honorably discharged. She said his action, taken more than a decade before Rosa Parks made the same refusal, was a testament to his fight for equality. Adrienne Cannon, an expert on Black history and culture at the library, showed the lieutenant's letter. Robinson had a good case and was acquitted, Cannon said.
11/6/2001 Charles Barron, 51, for the last 33 years lived as a militant outsider challenging authority. But come 1/2002, Barron, a former member of the Black Panthers, will become a City Councilman. He won a 7-way primary last month to succeed Priscilla Wooten as East New York's Representative on the 51-member council. ?“I was 18 when I joined the Black Panther Party,?” the father of 2 said. He was arrested alongside the Al Sharpton in 1987 during the ?“Day of Outrage?” protests over the bias attack that resulted in the death of Michael Griffith in Howard Beach, Queens. Barron said he'll work within the system. ?“I'm going to fool a lot of people. They think I'm going to come in there and yell, ?‘Power to the people?’ and then they can put my office in the bathroom and isolate me,?” he said.
11/6/2002 William ?“Mac?” McIntosh Jr., 59, CEO of Kirkland Chrysler-Jeep (No. 63 on the B.E. AUTO DEALER list with $48 million in sales), grew his business into one of the largest Black-owned dealerships in the country, and was responsible for placing Blacks in 27 minority-owned dealerships. In 1983, McIntosh was selected to lead Chrysler's retail dealership development program. His strategies included advertising in the Black media, establishing minority vendors and involving Chrysler in the Black community by introducing the company to community-based organizations like the NAACP and the Urban League. Of the 27 original dealers placed by McIntosh, 12 were now millionaires. Family-owned businesses were often at risk of failure because succession plans were not established. ?“Mac?” said that there were 3 major steps that a dealer should plan for: 1) purchasing the dealership outright from the manufacturer, 2) buying the land and the building and 3) establishing a succession program. Mr. McIntosh suffered a heart attack while returning home from a business trip to Las Vegas.
11/6/2002 Juan N. Babauta (R) was elected Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan) with his term in office expiring in 1/2006. He was born on 9/7/1953.
11/6/2002 Hugh B. Price, President and CEO of the National Urban League, the country's 2nd-oldest civil rights organization for 8 years, released a statement saying he would leave the organization on 4/3/2003, or sooner, if a replacement was found. The New York-based Urban League, which was dedicated to preparing Blacks for entrance into the economic and social mainstream, was founded in 1910, a year after the NAACP was formed. Under Price's tenure, the 93-year-old League transformed $1 million in debt into 6 consecutive years of balanced budgets with surpluses. Besides streamlining the organization, Price instituted the most successful endowment drive in Urban League history, resulting in a tripling of assets; secured the largest foundation grant in Urban League history, $25 million, from the Lilly Endowment; and created national grassroots programs to stimulate academic achievement among Black youth. Price, was on the board of directors of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Bell Atlantic and Sears Roebuck & Company. The National Urban League served more than 2 million people annually and had 115 affiliate offices in 34 states across the country and the District of Columbia (See: 7/1/1994).
11/6/2002 Following last month's general election, the Jamaican cabinet now included 3 female members of Parliament (MPs), a 1st in the country's history. The 16-member Bahamian cabinet also included 3 women, while Grenada was ranked 17th out of 181 countries for the percentage of women in its lower house of Parliament. But gender activists charged that these women were still the exception rather than the rule in Caribbean politics. Seven of the 28 women who ran in the recent election won seats in Jamaica's 60-seat Parliament. But apart from wanting to see more women parliamentarians, gender activists also wanted to see women being appointed to a wider range of portfolios. In the Bahamas for example, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Financial Services Minister were both women, a development that observers said was a step in the right direction.
11/6/2002 The tiny mountain Kingdom of Swaziland, was a landlocked dot between South Africa and Mozambique, that was Africa's last absolute monarchy and it faced its most dire political crisis since independence from British rule in 1968. His Majesty King Mswati III, (34) known as The Lion to his subjects, wanted to make 18-year- old Zena Mahlangu his bride, his 10th bride, to be precise. So the King abducted her. Then her mother sued and the King's judges agreed to hear the case. So the King's henchmen threatened to get rid of the judges. The chaos subsided with the announcement that Mahlangu and the King were officially engaged, an agreement by Mahlangu's mother to back off her unprecedented lawsuit and a formal apology from the King's top henchman. But the forces behind the modern fairy tale of Mswati and Mahlangu, tradition, repression, power, sex, were still swirling in Swaziland, signaling that the King's grip on this country of about 1 million people may be eroding. Mswati who had been synonymous with the law in Swaziland, was finding that he was no longer above the law. When he tried to make his brother a Chief of 2 provinces, a political firestorm forced him to back down. And a critic who had been charged with sedition was acquitted last month.
11/6/2002 As a populist gesture in 1997, Punjab's government ordered the state-owned utility to stop charging farmers for the power that ran their irrigation pumps. Now, with the utility teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, the government had been forced to reinstate the charges, triggering angry protests. Indian economic growth, though forecast at a respectable 5.5% that year, was well short of the 8% annual rate that Indian officials said was needed to make lasting improvements in the lives of India's billion-plus people, about 300 million of whom subsisted on less than a dollar a day. In a blunt speech to Indian businessmen that week, US Ambassador Robert Blackwill observed that 10 years ago, per capita income in China and India was roughly equal. Today, he noted, it is roughly $900 in China, about double the amount of India. Similarly, China last year attracted $47 billion in foreign investment, compared with $4 billion in India, which was only slightly smaller in population.
11/6/2002 Chinese President Jiang Zemin, 76, a former owlish engineer, who took over at a fateful moment 13 years ago, defied the odds, as did the Communist Party he led. Starting 11/8/02, Jiang will preside in triumph over the 16th Party Congress, a week-long gathering of 2,120 delegates held every 5 years that will anoint a new generation of leaders for the world's largest remaining Communist organization. Jiang will step down from his post as General-Secretary of the party. His successor, Vice President Hu Jintao, will also assume Jiang's title as President in 3/02 during China's annual legislative session. Chinese sources said Jiang stacked the all-powerful Standing Committee of the Politburo with his allies, ensuring his continued influence. During Jiang's rule, the Party had done 3 things it had never done before, thereby strengthening its hand. It kept to a minimum the political infighting that brought the party to the brink of collapse in 1989. It stepped out of people's lives. And it abandoned the downtrodden, siding with those who had emerged as winners in the economic reforms. As a result, today's China acted like a massive corporation with the Communist Party as its Board of Directors. Jiang and his lieutenants understood something capitalists had known for years: Even if they controlled less than 50% of the stock, as long as they were the biggest shareholder and had the right shares, such as the media, the security services and ways to tax the best companies, they could control China. The government had withdrawn from the private lives of most Chinese people and opened large sectors of the economy to private or foreign firms. This shift, from a revolutionary party to a ruling party, was a key reason why the Communists remained in power. The party's new base will be formally recognized during the Congress with new rules welcoming businessmen into the fold and enshrining the ?“Three Represents?” doctrine into the party constitution. That doctrine, attributed to Jiang, stated that the Party now represented the most advanced productive and cultural forces in society, buzzwords for the elite.
11/6/2003 China announced plans to send 2 more taikonauts into orbit within the next 2 years on the country's 2nd manned mission. The announcement, carried by the official New China News Agency's Web site, was the most detailed information yet on China's plans for its next space launch. The craft will be called Shenzhou 6.
11/6/2003 At least 30 past or present Black employees of Swedish Medical Center claimed that the hospital routinely dismissed their complaints of racial discrimination, the Seattle branch of the NAACP said. Black employees in various jobs and departments were treated worse than White co-workers, said Sakara Remmu, head of the NAACP?’s Health and Social Services Committee. The NAACP wanted to meet with Swedish management to discuss the hospital?’s policies and procedures and to emphasize that grievances ?“need to be taken as seriously as patient care,?” Remmu said. The organization also wanted each complaint fully investigated, she said. ?“We put it upon Swedish to make it right or face a class-action suit.?” Some employees had filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Remmu said. Officials at the EEOC?’s Seattle district office were not available for comment.
11/6/2003 A study on the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebellion in northern Uganda blamed the US and British governments for causing and prolonging the conflict. The report recently launched in Kampala by the Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC), also blamed former President Milton Obote and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) for the war, which had raged for 17 years. It said the conflict was a hatred war, which was 1st started by Obote in his attempt to get rid of Acholi and Catholics from the Government. ?“This has also been part of the US and British policy in...the Great Lakes Region. The US support to Uganda in fighting the then Islamic fundamentalist regime in Sudan and Uganda's support to the SPLM/A is what motivated the Sudan government to give military assistance to the LRA?” the HURIPEC report said. It attacked the US for supporting the UPDF ?“Operation Iron Fist?” which aimed at routing the LRA. It said this complicated the conflict within Uganda. The study was carried out by HURIPEC under the Makerere U Faculty of Law assisted by the Canadian-based LIU Institute of Global Issues, Norwegian Refugee Council, Africa Study Centre and Gulu based Human Rights groups.
11/7/1775 Lord Dunmore, the British governor of Virginia, issued a proclamation promising freedom to slaves and indentured servants who joined the British forces as the American Revolutionary War began (See: 11/18/1775, 12/1/1775, 12/9/1775 and 12/ 31/1777).
11/7/1837 White abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy, the editor of the Alton Observer was killed by pro-slavery men and his newspaper office was destroyed, in Alton, IL.
11/7/1841 Africans aboard the slave ship ?“Creole?” revolt near the port of New Orleans and 134 sat sail for t he Bahamas, where they would be free.
11/7/1874 The Republican Party was symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast in Harper?’s Weekly magazine.
11/7/1893 Women residents in the State of Colorado were granted the right to vote.
11/7/1916 Republican Jeanette Rankin of Montana became the 1st woman elected to the US Congress and the only legislator to vote against both WW I and WW II; most States continued to deny women the right to vote.
11/7/1932 Blacks played a role in getting Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected President of the US.
11/7/1934 Arthur R. Mitchell, was elected the 1st Black-American Democrat to the US House, representing Chicago (1/3/1935-1/3/1943) after defeating Oscar DePriest in a Chicago election.
11/7/1958 Alexa Canady, who at age 30 will become the 1st Black-American female neurosurgeon in the4 US, was born in Lansing, MI.
11/7/1962 Former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, died in New York City.
11/7/1967 Carl Stokes of Cleveland, Ohio and Richard Hatcher of Gary, Indiana, were elected the 1st Black-American Mayors of these major cities.
11/7/1967 The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS) was established when US President Johnson signed a Bill to that effect.
11/7/1972 Rafael Hern?¡ndez Col?³n was elected Governor of Puerto Rico and became the youngest elected Governor at age 36.
11/7/1972 Barbara C. Jordan finished her last session as a Texas State Senator as 1st Black anywhere President pro-Tempore and was elected to the US House of Representatives along with Andrew Young of Atlanta, Georgia becoming the 1st southern Black-Americans from former Confederate States since Reconstruction.
11/7/1972 James H. Robinson made his way to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and Union Theological Seminary in New York. A life-long social activist, Robinson fought at historically Black Lincoln against the existence of the school's all-White faculty. Politically active, Robinson ran on the Liberal Party ticket for the Borough Presidency of Manhattan in 1953, an election won by Hulan Jack, a regular Democrat who became the 1st person of color to hold the office. One of the reasons Robinson founded Operation Crossroads Africa in 1957 was the fact that he needed an answer to the question he was frequently asked, particularly by college students who heard him preach: ?“What can I do??” In the nearly 50 years since its establishment, Crossroads Africa sent some 10,000 volunteers to 35 African countries 12 Caribbean countries and Brazil, working on education, public health, community construction and agriculture. Robinson ran into difficulties. South Africa refused him a visa. The US government lifted his passport. Operation Crossroads Africa was called the ?“progenitor of the Peace Corps?” by US President John F. Kennedy. Robinson died on this date in New York at age 65 (b: 1907, the Black ghetto of Knoxville, TN).
11/7/1978 Japanese-American Robert Takeo Matsui, attorney (1967), former Sacramento City Councilman, Sacramento Regional Advisory Board of Justice Planning Representative, Vice Mayor was elected to the US Congress (D-CA, 1/3/1979 - ?).
11/7/1978 Five Black-Americans were elected to the US Congress: William Gray III (PA), Bennett Stewart (IL), Melvin Evans (Virgin Islands) Julian Dixon (CA) and George Leland (TX).
11/7/1981 An extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was endorsed by US President Ronald Reagan, but with qualifications that made it unenforceable.
11/7/1989 Black-American L. Douglas Wilder was elected Governor of Virginia, becoming the 1st Black elected Governor since Reconstruction.
11/7/1989 David Dinkins was elected New York City?’s 1st Black-American Mayor.
11/07/2000 Barack Obama, 38, was 1st known as a popular and effective lawmaker in the Illinois Legislature, then as a candidate in an ugly and unsuccessful Congressional race against former Black Panther Bobby Rush. He suffered a stinging loss to a lackluster, unpolished and largely inarticulate Bobby Rush, who was successful in painting Obama as an over-educated, elitist outsider. Obama spoke little of the prominent, long-dead Kenyan father for whom he was named. He also spoke little of a childhood spent in Indonesia and Hawaii and offered little about the White mother who raised him. He said recently that his mother, now/then deceased, recognized that "he was a Black man in the US and my experiences were going to be different than hers (See: 3/16/2004).?”
11/7/2000 Phillip Brutus (D), became Florida's 1st elected Haitian-American State Representative in the Legislator.
11/7/2000 Sila M. Calder?³n of the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) was elected Puerto Rico's Chief Executive Officer/Governor (See: 9/23/1942).
11/7/2000 First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected New York?’s 1st female US Senator and became the only 1st Lady, to date, to win an office on her own.
11/7/2000 Black-American Republican voting fell from approximately 12-15% to 8% for Republican Presidential candidate G.W. Bush and in his home state of Texas it was lower, at about 5%, while roughly 90% voted for Democratic Vice President A. Gore.
11/7/2000 Tauese P. F. Sunia (D) was elected Governor of American Samoa with his term in office expiring in 1/2005. He was born on 8/29/1941.
11/7/2000 Ruth Ann Minner (D) was elected the Governor of Delaware with her term in office expiring in 1/2005. She was born on 1/17/1935.
11/7/2000 Judy Martz (R) was elected Governor of Montana with her term in office expiring in 1/2005. She was born on 7/28/1943.
11/7/2000 Jeanne Shaheen (D) was elected Governor of New Hampshire and Providence Plantations with her term expiring in 1/2003. She was born on 1/28/1947.
11/7/2000 Sila M. Calderon (PDP) was elected Governor of Puerto Rico with her term expiring in 1/2005. She was born on 9/23/1942.
11/7/2001 Cincinnati Councilwoman Alicia Reece, 30, the 3rd-highest vote getter in the election according to unofficial results, was chosen as the Vice Mayor by newly elected Mayor Charlie Luken. Reece, a fellow Democrat and Black, had served one term on the City Council. Her appointment would become effective in 12/2001. Most Cincinnatians welcomed the selection, but skeptics complained that her appointment was only a tactic to allay lingering discontentment among many of the city?’s Black voters.
11/7/2001 Black-American workers at the Adams Mark chain of hotels who said they were denied promotions and unfairly disciplined should not be allowed to pursue their discrimination claims as a nationwide class because they couldn?’t point to a ?“centralized decision making process?” that affected them all, a judge found. In an 80-page report and recommendation in Vinson v. Seven Seventeen HB Philadelphia Corp., US Magistrate Judge Charles B. Smith found that the plaintiffs cannot meet the ?“typicality?” and ?“commonality?” requirements of Rule 23. Smith also recommended that 8 of the 11 named plaintiffs have their cases sent back to their home districts in Missouri, North Carolina, Colorado and Alabama. Smith's recommendations would become the law of the case if they were adopted by US District Judge R. Barclay Surrick, who referred all pretrial matters to Smith. Lawyers on both sides had 10 days to lodge objections to Smith?’s report. The decision, if adopted, was a major victory for the defense team, attorneys Michael M. Baylson, Stephen A. Mallozzi and Teresa N. Cavenagh of Duane Morris & Heckscher. The decision was also very critical of the team of plaintiffs' lawyers, finding that one reason the case should not be certified was that they were not adequate class counsel due to their history of mishandling other cases. ?“The court harbors some serious doubts about the ability of plaintiffs' counsel to adequately represent a class in this case. They have, in other cases before the court, evidenced their willingness to violate discovery orders, miss filing deadlines, fail to conduct discovery and mislead defense counsel. Our well-founded concerns weigh heavily against class certification,?” Smith wrote. The plaintiffs' team, attorney Samuel A. Dion of Dion-Goldberger in Philadelphia; Alan Lescht in Washington, D.C.; Louis Ginsberg in New York; and Theodore C. Anderson and Dorothy Elizabeth Masterson of Kilgore & Kilgore in Dallas, previously filed a similar class action suit on behalf of Black workers at Adams Mark hotels that was denied class certification by US District Judge Jay C. Waldman.
11/7/2001 Local historian Kevin Cottrell was scheduled to discuss the history of the Under- ground Railroad in Western New York and Southern Ontario at 2 p.m. 11/13/2001 at Canisius College, Buffalo, NY. His lecture, in the Grupp Fireside Lounge of the Richard E. Winter Student Center on campus, would be free to the public. Cottrell was owner/operator of Motherland Connextions, a local company specializing in heritage tourism. He was also founder of the Preservation Corp. to rehabilitate the Michigan Street Baptist Church, the oldest piece of property continuously owned by Black-Americans there and an Underground Railroad site dating back to 1842. In 1993, Cottrell and 8 others drew national attention when they formed an Underground Railroad Committee of the Niagara Frontier and took a 15-city tour following the Harriet Tubman Trail, one of the country's most famous Underground Railroad routes.
11/7/2001 Cuban-American Orlando Sanchez, a Republican City Councilman hoping to become Houston?’s 1st Hispanic Mayor, forced a historic run-off with incumbent Mayor Lee Brown, a Black-American, by garnering 41% of the vote, compared with 43% for Brown, therefore, next month's mayoral run-off in Houston will mark the 1st time a White candidate wasn't in the running. A Hispanic and Black candidate had never faced off in a mayoral run-off in any of the 10 largest US cities, analysts said. ?“These elections show that minorities in Houston have truly become the mainstream in the city's politics,?” the Houston Chronicle said, citing University of Houston political science professor Kent Tedin. An election contested between Hispanic and Black candidates was rare because both minority groups tended to support the Democratic Party. In this case, the candidates' party affiliations were a determining factor, even though Houston's mayoral elections were technically non-partisan.
11/7/2001 Libyan-backed government troops regained full control of Bangui, a city of 553,000 people and the capitol of the Central African Republic(CAR), moving into the northwestern parts of the city which had been held by forces loyal to former army Chief of Staff Gen. Francois Bozize. Libya sent troops and equipment Monday to defend President Ange-Felix Patasse, as it did during a May coup attempt, when mutineers and loyalist soldiers battled each other for a week. Fighting in the CAR erupted 11/3/01 when presidential guards reportedly tried to arrest Gen. Bozize, who was fired 2 weeks ago, at his home on charges he took part in a May coup attempt. The guards met resistance from troops loyal to Bozize, who denied any role in the attempt. General Bozize defended President Patasse during the 5/2001 and similar ones in 1996 and 1997. Patasse had held power since he won elections in 1993, ending the 12-year military dictatorship of Gen. Andre Kolingba (See: 12/4/2001).
11/7/2002 Early indicators showed Hispanic voters helped defeat Amendment 31, English immersion, overwhelmingly rejecting the measure in select Denver neighborhoods and in heavily Hispanic counties across Colorado. In Denver's 3 most heavily Hispanic neighborhoods, voters by a 2-to-1 margin turned down the ballot measure requiring yearlong English-immersion programs for children who speak little English. And in counties across Colorado, from the San Luis Valley to the urban Front Range, a pattern emerged - higher numbers of Hispanic residents typically translated into more ?“no?” votes on 31. Not all metro-area counties followed the trend. Adams County narrowly approved the measure, despite having the state's 15th-highest percentage of Hispanic residents. And El Paso County, with just 4% Hispanic residents, soundly defeated 31 (See: 11/5/2002).
11/7/2002 US Secretary of State Colin Powell, President George W. Bush and Ambassadors from the 56 member nations of the Organization of Islamic Conference and Muslim representatives from across America attended a Iftaar where Bush said that America's war was against a network of terrorists and not against the Islamic religion or Muslim civilization. Iftaar was the time when Muslims ended their dawn-to-dusk fast every day during the month of Ramadan, which began 11/6/02. This was the 2nd day of the month long fasting. The guests included 2 Muslim members of the Bush administration, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, who was the Director of the National Institute of Health, and Dr. Amanullah Khan, a Pakistani member of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. The practice of inviting prominent Muslims to the White House for an Iftaar dinner was started by the Clinton administration in 1996 and the current administration also followed this tradition.
11/7/2002 An Iranian court sentenced Hashem Aghajari, 45, an academic and close ally of President Mohammad Khatami to death for blasphemy after he questioned the right of the clergy to rule the Islamic Republic, his lawyer said. He angered conservative clerics by delivering a speech on ?“Islamic Protestantism?” in which he compared the earthly powers enjoyed by Iran's clerical rulers with medieval Catholic Popes. Following a closed trial without jury in the western city of Hamedan, Aghajari was sentenced to 74 lashes, 8 years in jail and then execution. The verdict was likely to send shock waves through Iran's reformist movement, many of whom defended his right to free speech. Particularly galling for the clerical establishment was his questioning of the Shi'ite Muslim practice of emulating senior clerics qualified to interpret the Koran. His lawyer said he expected the Supreme Court judges to throw out the sentence on appeal.
11/7/2003 In a classic example of racial disconnect, the bulk of glowing media reports on October?’s job growth and minuscule unemployment drop masked the alarming jobless statistics in the Black community. While the Bush administration crowed that the national employment rate blipped downward from 6.1% in 9/03 to 6% last month, the latest US Department of Labor stats also showed that the Black adult unemployment rate had climbed to 11.5% and the Black teenage unemployment rate had gone through the roof at 37%.
11/7/2003 Civil rights veterans in the nation?’s capitol were shocked and offended as news came that Democratic presidential hopefuls Joe Lieberman, John Kerry, Dick Gephardt, Wesley Clark and John Edwards had secretly orchestrated a simultaneous withdrawal from the DC presidential primary scheduled for 1/13/04. The primary was set to make history as the 1st time a majority-Black jurisdiction led off the presidential nominating process. District civil rights and voting rights leaders made their primary 1st-in-the-nation in order to draw attention to the fact that DC residents cannot elect voting members to the US House or Senate. The 5 candidates submitted nearly identical letters on the same day to the District's Board of Elections and Ethics, asking to be removed from the 1/13th ballot. The DC primary would now be a contest between Democratic front-runner Howard Dean, civil rights leader Al Sharpton, Congressman Dennis Kucinich and former Senator Carol Mosely-Braun.
11/7/2003 An ancient Ethiopian obelisk that Italian Fascist forces hauled out of Ethiopia in the 1930s was being disassembled in central Rome for its journey home, a rare restitution that came amid international debate over the rightful ownership of looted works. Decades after Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini presided over an unveiling ceremony in central Rome, the Italian government decided last year to start procedures to return the 82-foot (24.6-meter)-tall Ethiopian booty. The decision came as Western governments and museums faced dilemmas, if not investigations and lawsuits, over artworks they obtained during wars and colonialism. Some of the most contested artworks were looted by the Nazis from Jewish and other victims. A major step in the complicated return of the fragile yet weighty Axum Obelisk came, when workers removed a 22-foot(6.6-meter)-long chunk from the top that weighs about 40 tons. Seeing part of the 1,700-year-old monument swinging from a crane, and headed home, prompted a group of Ethiopians to burst into cries of delight. The events leading to Italy's relinquishing the obelisk started shortly after World War II, when the Ethiopian government asked to have it back several times but was ignored. Later, ravaged by wars and famine, the Horn of Africa nation was in no position to press its demand. In the early 1990s, a popular campaign took off in Ethiopia to have the monument returned. Italy finally agreed in 1998, but a border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea put those plans on hold until now. The obelisk was originally carved from a single piece of stone but transported to Italy in several pieces and reassembled. It was now being disassembled into 3 part for the trip home, with experts using jacks and cranes to separate the obelisk at its original cracks.
11/8/1898 White Riots in Greenwood County, SC, resulting in numerous Black-Americans being lynched.
11/8/1932 Of all Black-Americans allowed to vote, they voted 66% for Democrat FD Roosevelt and 33% for his Republican opponent, respectively.
11/8/1938 Democrat Crystal Bird Fauset of Philadelphia became the 1st Black-American woman elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (b: 6/27/1893 - d: 3/28/1965 at age 71).
11/8/1944 The US 761st ?“Black Panther?” Tank Battalion became the 1st Black armored unit to enter combat during an assault on the French towns of Moyenvic and Vic-sur-Seille.
11/8/1960 Nearly 66% of Black-Americans, allowed to vote, are members of and beholding to the Democratic Party and they and Mexican-Americans, about 90%, are instrumental in John F. Kennedy?’s narrow victory in the Presidential election, while about 33% maintained their Republican affiliation.
11/8/1960 Henry B. Gonzalez (D-TX) was elected to the 87th US Congress.
11/8/1960 After the election, Adam Clayton Powell, D-NY(Harlem), took over as Chairman of the powerful House Education and Labor Committee, where he had more concrete power than any Black man on the planet. His ?“club?” could initiate proposals worth billions of dollars and make decisions affecting millions of Americans, hundreds of schools, labor unions and employment practices.
11/8/1960 Luis Mu?±oz Mar?n was reelected Governor of Puerto Rico for the fourth 4 year term.
11/8/1960 Otis M. Smith was elected Auditor General of Michigan and became the 1st Black- American chosen in a statewide election since Reconstruction.
11/8/1966 Edward W. Brooke, III (R-Mass.), was elected to the US Senate and became the 1st Black-American Senator elected by the popular vote, since the Reconstruction Era and the 1st Black from the Northeast.
11/8/1966(?) Barbara C. Jordan was elected to the Texas State Senate, the 1st Black-American female and the 1st Black since 1883.
11/8/1983 W. Wilson Goode of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1984-92), Harvey Gantt of Charlotte, North Carolina, and James A. Sharp, Jr. of Flint, Michigan, are the 1st Black-Americans elected Mayor of their respective cities.
11/8/1988 Rafael Hern?¡ndez Col?³n was re-elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
11/8/1992 Vernon Jordan was appointed to head US President-elect Bill Clinton?’s transition team, the 1st time an Black-American had held that position.
11/8/1995 Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Black-American Colin Powell, ended months of speculation by announcing that he would not run for the US Presidency on the Republican ticket or any other ticket in 1996.
11/8/1997 Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited the site where an army of workers and engineers in an engineering feat diverted the Yangtze River from its natural course today, clearing the way for construction to begin on the world?’s biggest dam, the Three Gorges Dam, the most ambitious construction project in modern China?’s history.
11/8/1997 The separatists Sri Lankan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam formally rejected a power sharing plan offered by the government dimming hopes of ending the island nation?’s long civil war. The Tamils said they still demanded the establishment of an independent state.
11/8/1997 The People?’s Democratic Republic of Korea/North Korea allowed 15 Japanese women of the estimated 1,800 Japanese women married to North Koreans to visit Japan. The women who moved to that country with their husbands, mainly between 1959 and 1963, some were never heard from again, because the country refused to let them leave and did not usually let relatives of the women in North Korea (See: 1959).
11/9/1731 Benjamin Banneker, future self-taught scientist, astronomer, mathematician and creator of almanacs, helped lay out the city of Washington, DC and will also design, build and be credited with building the 1st western style clock in the Americas (out of hand-made wooden pieces that worked) even though he had never seen one, was born free in MD. the son of Robert and Mary Bannaky, his grandfather was a slave from Africa and his grandmother, an indentured servant from England.(d: 10/9/1806 at 74, in Ellicott Mills, MD., there are 2 other dates of death for him, 10/25/1806 and 10/26/1806) (See: 3/12/1791 and 8/19/1791).
11/9/1868 Howard University Medical School opened with 8 students.
11/9/1943 In a memorandum, Black US Army General Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. pointed out the nearly impossible task required of Black-American soldiers in developing "a high morale in a community that offers him nothing but humiliation and mistreatment." He reported that instead of working to eliminate "Jim Crow" laws in the military, "the Army, by its directives and by actions of commanding officers, has introduced the attitudes of the ?‘Governors of the six Southern states,?’ in many of the other 42 states of the continental United States." He also conducted several important inquiries into racial clashes between Black soldiers and White soldiers or civilians stationed at Fort Bragg, NC; Alexandria, LA; Fort Dix, NJ; Selfridge Field (now Air Force Base), MI and Camp Stewart, GA. In his reports, Davis recommended that Black soldiers gradually be removed from southern posts and that Black officers be assigned to command Black troops. General Davis also represented the War Department at numerous functions involving Black civilians, such as war bond rallies or speeches given to war industry workers.
11/9/1953 Kingdom of Cambodia, Cambodia and Kampuchea gained its independence from France (See: 1975 and 9/24/1993).
11/9/1961 The Professional Golfers Association eliminated their Caucasians only rule.
11/9/1962 Dhondo Keshav, Indian social reformer and supporter of education for women, died at age 104.
11/9/1970 William Levi Dawson, Democratic US Congressman (1943-70) and party leader, in Chicago, IL, died at the age of 84 (b: 4/26/1886, Albany, GA.).
11/9/1976 The UN General Assembly condemned apartheid in South Africa.
11/9/1990 Freedom Bank in New York City, one of the largest Black-American-owned banks in the nation, was declared insolvent with losses in 1988-1989 totaled $4.7 million, it was expected to lose $2 million in 1990 and a last-minute effort to revive the bank by raising funds from the local Harlem community failed to meet the government-imposed deadline.
11/9/1997 Victoria A. Tolbert, the widow of slain Liberian President William R. Tolbert who was living in a suburb of Minneapolis with her daughter, Dr Wilhelmina Holder, died of a heart attack.
11/9/1997 Last Spring the Educational Testing Service issued a report on their study that found that 95% of South-Asian high school seniors aspired to earn a college degree, compared with 65% Southeast Asians and 74% of all American seniors. The study also stated that most people saw Asian Pacific-American students as members of a ?“model minority?” destined to excel and some schools placed Asian-Americans in special education classes when they simply needed to learn English and failed to offer bilingual programs in enough languages.
11/9/2001(?) The Institute for Justice (IJ) took up the challenge of economic liberty as one of the most important components of civil rights, not only for Blacks but all Americans. The Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Justice (www.ij.org) held its 10th anniversary celebration to discuss those challenges. California's cosmetology schools taught hair-straightening and chemical use but absolutely nothing about braiding. The law's design was to restrict entry to the cosmetology industry so that incumbent practitioners could charge higher prices. The IJ lawyers sued and won. The federal court held in Cornwell vs. California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology that the licensing law was arbitrary and unconstitutional. This was an important victory for economic liberty, the right to earn an honest living free from excessive government regulation. It opened the way for African hair braiders across the country to practice their craft legally. Craigmiles opened a shop and started selling caskets to his church members 30 -50% cheaper than funeral home prices and that made him a criminal. Tennessee law required a funeral director's license in order to sell caskets. The IJ sued. In 8/2000, the US District Court for the Eastern District of TN held in Craigmiles vs. Giles that ?“there is no reason to require someone who sells what is essentially a box (a casket) to undergo the time and expense of training and testing that has nothing to do with the State's asserted goals of consumer protection and health and safety.?” TN's funeral director's lobby was powerful and sought to maintain its monopoly. It forced the state's attorney to appeal the decision in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Through a long, hard and bitterly fought struggle, Black-Americans have constitutional guarantees that remained elusive for so long. The unfinished business for all Americans, including Black-Americans, was the guarantee of economic liberty, the right to earn a living in any lawful occupation. Bu when the NAACP, Urban League and Black politicians talked about civil rights, they talked mostly about how many Blacks were in college, the racial composition of schools and neighborhoods or the number of Blacks employed in what positions. I wondered whether the civil rights establishment agreed with IJ?’s objectives? (See: 11/2001(?)).
11/9/2002 Grace Mugabe, the 1st Lady of Zimbabwe was neither poor nor landless. Yet she and 100s of the President's relatives and supporters, as well as senior government officials and their families, had been given commercial farms seized from White owners, according to civic groups and government records. Of the first 600 farms seized after voters rejected constitutional proposals to strengthen Mugabe's authority in 2/2000, nearly 200 went to Zimbabweans with connections to his ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). The list, according to Justice for Agriculture, a farmers' advocacy group there, included Vice President Joseph Msika, government ministers, their siblings and adult children. Few disputed the need for land reform. Though Whites accounted for less than 1% of Zimbabwe's population, they owned 70% of its arable farm land before government-sanctioned mobs led by veterans of the country's independence war began chasing them from their land more than 2 years ago. More than a dozen White farmers had been killed during the campaign and an estimated 150,000 Black farm workers had lost their jobs and homes.
11/9/2002 To Gary Salinas, the sign nailed to the roof of his family's west-side motel was a testament to his American pride, announcing in red letters that it was ?“American Owned.?” To Jay Patel, owner of the Super 8 Motel on North Academy Boulevard and a native of India, the sign was a ?“slap in the face?” and smacked of racism or ethnocentrism. In Colorado Springs, CO. immigrants owned more than 30 motels and hotels, including 9 owned by Asian-Americans and 25 by Polish-Americans. There were about 150 motels and hotels in the city, according to the Colorado Springs Convention and Visitor's Bureau. More than 50% of US economy lodging properties and nearly 35% of all hotel properties were owned by Asian-Americans, according to the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA). Patel was born in India but had lived in the US for 23 years and was a citizen. For 18 years, he's owned motels and hotels. He was a certified public accountant, a former team leader for US Olympic field hockey and last year led an effort resulting in the city's Indian community donating $10,000 to the Colorado Springs Police and Fire departments. The Patel name was famous among hoteliers. Of the 6,000 members of AAHOA, 90% were Patels or came from his home state of Gujarat, India. Several motels on the West Colorado Avenue strip near the Mecca Motel were owned by European immigrants. Just down the road from the Mecca was the Buffalo Lodge, which was bought 3 years ago by Polish immigrants Liz and Andy Wiszniewski. The Wiszniewskis moved from Poland to the US in the 1970s, became American citizens and their children were born in this country. They didn't like Salinas' sign.
11/9/2003 Colombia?’s 1st woman Defense Minister, who launched all-out war on leftist rebels but openly feuded with the military brass, refused to say why she abruptly resigned after 15 months in office. Martha Lucia Ramirez read a statement describing how the military and police under her command improved security in the war-torn South American country. But she did not say why she resigned and she refused to take questions from reporters. President Alvaro Uribe appointed a US-educated businessman with no military experience to replace her. Ramirez was the 2nd Cabinet member to quit Uribe's government in a week. Uribe?’s office gave no explanation for the surprise move. Her successor, Jorge Alberto Urib , who was not related to the President, said he would press on with efforts to crush a 4-decade leftist insurgency but also was open to peace talks. The new Minister was the Chairman of leading insurance firm Seguras de Lima and studied economics at Georgetown U in Washington. He took over the ministry at a crucial time. Helped by billions of dollars in US military aid, the army had driven leftist rebels out of areas once under their control and reduced illegal drug crops by one-third.
11/9/2003 Black North Carolinians helped to start US Sen. John Edwards' political career, and he asked them to assist him once again by spreading his presidential campaign message to voters in early Democratic primary states. Edward's 1998 election to Congress demonstrated the power of Black turnout in Southern elections. Blacks counted for 1 in 5 NC ballots cast that day and the former trial lawyer picked up 90% of them to edge out his Republican opponent. Looking toward the 2004 elections, Edwards was pressed to win the South Carolina nominating primary for his candidacy to have any chance of surviving. That meant earning the support of many Black voters, since they could account for as much as half of the people casting ballots in that state's 2/3/04 Democratic primary. David Bositis, Senior Analyst with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Black think tank in Washington, said none of the 9 Democratic presidential candidates, even the 2 candidates who themselves were Black, had a clear edge with Blacks. The fact that members of the Congressional Black Caucus were split in their endorsements was a sign, Bositis said. As examples, IL. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. backed former VT. Gov. Howard Dean, NY Rep. Charles Rangel sided with retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark and TX. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, among several others, went for Edwards.
11/9/2003 Al Sharpton's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination had so far attracted little support from voters, but plenty of financial backing from a loosely knit coalition of wealthy Black media barons and impresarios who represented a powerful collection of media properties targeting Blacks. Sharpton had been the candidate of choice for business executives such as billionaire cable TV mogul Robert L. Johnson of Washington, who sold BET to Viacom Inc. in 2001, was available in more than 75 million cable and satellite TV homes; Cathy Hughes of Radio One Inc. in MD. Which owned 66 stations nationwide, including WKYS-FM and WMMJ-FM in the Washington area and hip-hop entrepreneurs Russell Simmons and Sean ?“P. Diddy?” Combs. Two other contributors, David Mays and Keith Clinkscales, headed companies that publish such Black-oriented magazines as the Source and Savoy, respectively. Each had given Sharpton the maximum permitted, $2,000. Employees of Radio One, the Lanham-based company founded by Hughes and headed by her son, Alfred C. Liggins, had been the single most generous source of funds for Sharpton's campaign. In addition to Hughes, Liggins and syndicated Radio One disc jockey Russ Parr, who had each given $2,000, 12 other officers and employees of the company contributed $6,800 to Sharpton, according to federal records. Other financial backers included Black Enterprise magazine Founder Earl G. Graves; Essence magazine Chairman Edward Lewis; comedian Steve Harvey; and Pierre M. Sutton, Chairman of the board of Inner City Broadcasting Corp., a NY-based company that owned 17 stations; Los Angeles attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.; record producer Antonio ?“L.A.?” Reid; and Abner Louima. Sharpton publicly supported Louima after the Haitian immigrant was tortured by NYC police after an arrest in 1997. The city of NY agreed to pay Louima $7.1 million in 2001 to settle his suit. Indeed, if not for the financial contributions of the Black media establishment, Sharpton's underdog candidacy would be even harder pressed for funds. However, Sharpton was among the leaders in one category: the percentage of campaign funds that had come from large donors (those giving $1,000 or more to a candidate). Thanks in part to Johnson, Hughes and others, Sharpton has raised 82% of his funds from large donors, 3rd among all candidates behind President Bush at 84% and Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) at 83%, according to the Campaign Finance Institute, an organization affiliated with George Washington U. None of the media properties has endorsed Sharpton, although his candidacy has been featured in various stories and reports.
11/10/1808 Lewis Charles Levin, who will become the 1st Jewish member of the US House of Representative from PA?’s 1st District (1845-51), was born in Charleston, Charleston County, SC (d: 3/14/1860 at age 51, Philadelphia, PA.).
11/10/1891 Granville T. Woods obtained a patent for the electric railway.
11/10/1898 Eight Blacks were killed during White rioting in Wilmington, NC.
11/10/1898 The National Benefit Life Insurance Company, was the largest Black-American insurance company for several years, was organized in Washington, DC, by Samuel W. Rutherford.
11/10/1919 Moise Kapenda Tshombe, future President (4/1960-1/1963) of the breakaway Congolese providence of Katanga then Premier (7/1964-10/1965) of the Congo(Zaire), was born (d: 6/29/1969 at age 49, Algiers, Algeria).
11/10/1928 Hirohito was enthroned as Emperor of Japan.
11/10/1930 Clarence M. Pendleton, Jr., he will become the 1st Black-American Republican Chairman of the US Civil Rights Commission (1981-88), he will infuriate so-called "black leaders" ("Who ever heard of 'white leaders'?" he would occasionally remark) when he called them "the new racists" whose support for the Democratic Party ?– to which he had once belonged ?– "led blacks into a political Jonestown"and he will oppose affirmative action and busing to achieve school desegregation, was born in Louisville, KY (d: 6/5/1988 at age 57, San Diego, CA).
11/10/1944 Silvestre Reyes, future Hispanic Vietnam Vet, US Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent, member of the Canutillo School Board and US Congressman (D-TX), was born in Canutillo, TX.
11/10/1945 Frederick C. Branch joined the US Marine Corp in 1943 and his 1st breakthrough came when he was selected to attend the Navy?’s V-12 program at Purdue University where he was not allowed to return the following year, but was sent, instead, to officer?’s school in Quantico, VA. After graduation he was the only Black in a class of 250 officer candidates and became the Corp?’s 1st Black commissioned officer on this date and at one time commanded an all-White platoon.
11/10/1957 Charlie Sifford became the 1st Black-American to win a major professional golf tournament, by winning the Long Beach Open.
11/10/1960 Andrew Hatcher was named Associate Press Secretary to President John F. Kennedy, becoming the highest-ranking Black-American, appointed to date, in the Executive branch.
11/10/1969 The children?’s educational program ?“Sesame Street?” made its debut on PBS.
11/10/1975 The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution equating ?“Zionism?” with racism, however, the world body repealed the resolution in 12/1991.
11/10/1982 The newly finished Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened to its first visitors in Washington, D.C.
11/10/2001 In many ways Somalia was like another collapsed country across the Arabian Sea, one that was under American bombardment. Like Afghanistan, Somalia was Muslim; each country drove a superpower off its soil and each faced overwhelming poverty and despair. Both Muslim nations were also chaotic enough to allow plenty of places for terrorists or their backers to hide, a fact of which the US was keenly aware. The weak Somalian government created at a peace conference in the adjoining country of Djibouti last year and not recognized by most of the world was too poor even to pay its members of Parliament and does not even control all of Mogadishu. Vast swaths of the countryside were still ruled by warlords and 2 vast regions to the north, Somaliland and Puntland, have broken away altogether. However, the government had vowed to root out terrorism and said it took seriously American allegations that fundamentalists inside Somalia had aided Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. Still, Somalia was wincing at the American reprisals, which included freezing financial assets of the country's largest corporation, Al Barakaat, saying the company and others like it, had been financing terrorists, and was not persuaded that its struggling citizens were secretly planning attacks against the US.
11/10/2001 China was accepted into the ?“Club?” of nations that defined globe trade, as the 143rd member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Amid a global slowdown, China was one of the few countries to boast positive economic growth and its lower labor costs had allowed it to become an important exporter and competitor around the world. China was the 7th-biggest trading nation, with merchandise exports of $249 billion last year; the US ranked 1st with exports of $781 billion. Some experts said China would rise to # 2 within a decade.
11/10/2001 About 100 students kidnaped by Hutu rebels in Burundi managed to escape during gun battles between their captors and the Tutsi-led army, but more than 100 others remained in rebel hands, local officials said. The rebels had kidnaped hundreds of boys and young men from schools in northwestern Kayanza province and eastern Ruyigi since 11/6, in what appeared to be an effort to force them to join their struggle against the army. Com?© Hatungimana, a local government administrator in Kayanza, said about 100 students taken on 11/9 had managed to return home. Fighting had intensified in Burundi since a new government was installed on 11/1, aimed at uniting Hutus and Tutsis to end a war that had killed more than 200,000 people.
11/10/2002 The Sudanese government was losing 1 of its partners in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, when Dr. James W. Buckee, the chief executive of Talisman Energy announced on 10/31/02, that the company was leaving the country after a 4 year presence. The company, based in Calgary, Alberta, agreed to sell its 25% share of the Sudanese venture to India's national oil company, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, for $758 million. The other partners in Greater Nile were the China National Petroleum Company, Petronas of Malaysia and the Sudanese government. Talisman's Sudan foray had been an unexpectedly big public relations problem since 1998. To human-rights advocates, Dr. Buckee was an arrogant, profit-driven plunderer who had made Talisman, a leading independent oil and gas producer, complicit in propping up one of the most repressive regimes. In their view, he had helped prolong a civil war that had cost an estimated 2 million lives in the last 20 years.
11/10/2002 Democratic activists were grumbling particularly about the party's performance in largely Black north Denver, a longtime stronghold that was home to Denver Mayor Wellington Webb. Precincts there had a 35% voter turnout, slightly more than half of the 67% turnout citywide. State Democratic brass defended their get-out-the-vote efforts, particularly in minority areas throughout the state. Spokesman Cody Wertz noted that beginning in 6/02, the party employed 10 workers to mobilize Black and Latino communities to vote. At the same time, state Republicans usurped traditionally Democratic methods by staging their most expansive midterm get-out-the-vote movement ever, after launching an aggressive and successful voter registration campaign. Experts said those efforts, coupled with a more clearly defined political platform, led the GOP to trounce Democrats both in Colorado and across the nation.
11/10/2002 One hundred and sixty countries began meeting in Santiago, Chile, for the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES. The southern African nations of Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa were pushing for revision of a 13-year-old global ban on the sale of ivory that would allow them to sell stockpiles of elephant tusks worth millions of dollars. And while the proposal involved mostly the tusks of elephants that died from natural causes, some rural Africans were wondering whether it was time to allow some of the continent's larger herds to be thinned out. As South Africa and its neighbors struggled to provide public education and basic health care to their citizens, the South African government had 30 tons of ivory in storage, most of it taken from elephants that died from natural causes. Selling that stockpile would bring in about $3.5 million. When humans and elephants come into conflict the elephants weren't always the ones at fault. While Kenya's elephant population has doubled in the 13 years its human population had risen from 21 to 34 million and hungry people were constantly on the move, looking for land to farm. Many rural villagers depended on subsistence farming. A large influx of Somali immigrants into Kenya had strained food and water supplies in an area where most people did not have piped water or electricity. The Voi District Hospital, Kenya, was overloaded with children sickened by polluted water. To most villagers in Voi, saving elephants seemed almost ludicrous (See: 11/12/2002).
11/10/2003 Ray Charles, 73, donated $1 million to Dillard U for the creation of a program about Black culture, the school announced. The donation will create an endowed faculty position and program devoted to the musical, culinary, artistic and linguistic contributions of Black Americans, Dillard spokeswoman Maureen Larkins said. Charles received an honorary degree in 5/2003 from Dillard, a private, predominantly Black school associated with the United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ. The singer donated the money in the name of the Robinson Foundation for Hearing Disorders, a laboratory he founded in 1987 for the treatment and research of hearing problems.
11/10/2003 Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton flew to Chicago to protest against DaimlerChrysler, calling the auto company?’s lending practices the equivalent of Blacks ?“not being able to sit?” in the front of the bus. Sharpton was at a DaimlerChrysler products conference at the Donald E. Stephens Center in Rosemont to call attention to the company?’s alleged redlining practices. In a 2/03 lawsuit, 6 Chicago area Blacks accused the automaker of discriminatory lending. The customers said they had high marks on their credit histories but had to get loans with other financial companies at higher interest rates. Company officials also made derogatory remarks against Blacks, the suit alleged.
11/10/2003 Across Africa, new information technologies were rapidly changing the lives of a small but growing number of people. In rural Togo a farmer got real-time information on market prices in the capitol, Lome, through a cellular phone. In Accra, Ghana, entrepreneurs who in the past were not able to get a dial tone on their land-line telephones could now connect immediately using Internet telephony - technology that allowed phone calls to be made through the Internet. And in Niger, the Bankilare Community Information Centre downloaded audio programs from the African Learning Channel and rebroadcasted them on local radio. So far, those were some of the few, fortunate Africans. For most people even making a telephone call was still a remote possibility in an era when most of the world was now communicating almost instantly across cities, regions and the globe using wireless and satellite technologies to send high-speed electronic messages. Africa had the fewest telephone lines, radios, television sets, computers and Internet users of any part of the world. It was most extreme in Africa where in 2001, out of 800 million people, only 1 in 4 had a radio, 1 in 13 a television set, 1 in 40 a telephone and 1 out of 130 a computer. The divide widened in Africa's countryside, where a lack of roads, telephone lines and electricity separated the rural majority from their urban counterparts. By mid-2002, 1.7 million Africans had dial-up Internet services, 1.2 million of them in South Africa and North Africa alone. Assuming that 3-to-5 people use each Internet-connected computer, it was possible that 5 to 8 million Africans had access to the Internet. In sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa, there were some 1.5 to 2.5 million users, one in every 250-400 people, compared to 1 in 15 people in the rest of the world. In North America and Europe, 1 in every 2 people has access to the Internet. Many African countries were increasingly leapfrogging old technologies and avoiding the expense of laying land lines. As a result, wireless technologies and mobile phones were becoming the preferred means of communication.
11/11/1831 Former Black slave Nat Turner, the messianic leader of North America?’s most significant slave revolt, the Southampton Rebellion of 1831, was hanged and skinned in Jerusalem, VA. (b: 10/2/1800).
11/11/1880 Feminist Mott died (See 1/3/1793).
11/11/1890 D. McCree was granted a patent for the portable fire escape.
11/11/1895 Bechuanaland/Botswana became part of the Cape Colony in Africa.
11/11/1917 Queen Liliuokalani, the last Queen of Hawaii, who throughout her lifetime wrote over 160 poetic melodies and chants, including ?“Aloha Oe?” her best known composition which told the tale of 2 lovers as they reluctantly depart, died after a stroke at age 79 (b: 9/2/1838).
11/11/1918 The war to end all wars, World War I, ended, with little mention of the Blacks and Jewish soldiers who had fought for Germany. Germany was stripped of its African colonies and forced to submit to the occupation of the Rhineland. The deployment of approximately 35,000 African troops by France to police the territory infuriated the Germans.
11/11/1918 The last German troops to surrender in World War I were East African soldiers under the command of the German officer Paul von Lettow Vorbeck. The Black soldiers, called "askaris", comprised 90% of the German colonial army in Africa.
11/11/1918 Thirty-five thousand (35,000) women had served in the US military by the end of the World War I.
11/11/1940 Barbara Boxer, future US Senator (D-CA.) from California, was born.
11/11/1965 The White minority Rhodesian/Zimbabwe government proclaimed its independence from Britain.
11/11/1968 In Maldives the 2nd Republic was formed with Ibrahim Nasir elected as President.
11/11/1972 The US Army turned over its base at Long Binh to the South Vietnamese army, symbolizing the end of direct US military involvement in the Vietnam War.
11/11/1975 Angola the country where the majority of slaves sent to Brazil originated gained its independence from Portugal. Its capitol is Luanda.
11/11/1979 The Bethune Museum and Archives, which is housed in the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, was to serve as a depository and center for Black-American women's history, was established in Washington, DC.
11/11/1989 The Civil Rights Memorial was dedicated in Montgomery, AL.
11/11/1992 Women were allowed to be ordained as priests in the Church of England.
11/11/1993 A bronze statue was dedicated in Washington, DC, honoring the more than 11,000 American women who served in the Vietnam War.
11/11/1997 Retired Black-American General Colin Powell announced he would not seek the Republican Presidential nomination or any other office in 2000, saying he lacked ?“the passion?” for political life.
11/11/1997 Mary (Leneghan) McAleese became the 1st person from Northern Ireland, a British citizen and the 2nd woman elected President of Ireland. During the 1997-elections 5 candidates were female and there was only one token male candidates finishing a distant last.
11/11/1998 Israel?’s Cabinet narrowly ratified a Land-for-Peace Agreement with the Palestinians.
11/11/2001 A senior Pakistani intelligence official, quoting what he said was a message from the Taliban's Supreme Leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, to his troops that night, said that the mullah had ordered the withdrawal so that American planes would stop bombing Afghan cities and the Taliban and Northern Alliance could fight on equal terms. Omar said: ?“Defeat and retreat are tests from God, but the mujahid does not fail these tests. Our strength lies in ground warfare, which will be better manifested if we leave the cities and take to the mountains. Defending the cities with front lines that can be targeted from the air will cause us terrible loss. Changing our strategy will save the lives of mujahedeen and of our civilians because once the Northern Alliance enters the cities, the bombing from the air will stop. Inshallah, then we will fight the proxies of the infidels as equals.?” In recent days, American planes have bombed Taliban tanks and troops on the move as the Northern Alliance captured cities across northern Afghanistan.
11/11/2001 To run a political campaign against L?¡zaro C?¡rdenas, 37, the candidate of the Democratic Revolutionary Party and the son and grandson of 2 of Mexico's most beloved leaders, was to run uphill against a legend. His name evoked images of Mexico's Camelot, a time when the Mexican Revolution lived up to its social promises of education and land for peasants. Hopes were high among Mr. C?¡rdenas's supporters for the renewal of the Mexican left in 11/18 election, that he will wrest the Governorship of Michoac?¡n State from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), until recently Mexico's invincible political machine. As it struggled for support, the question the governing party and its candidate, Alfredo Anaya, strived to answer was: How do you shatter a myth? They seemed to have focused on a nationalistic campaign against Mr. C?¡rdenas's foreign-born wife, Mayra Coffigny, 38, a classical ballerina, a native of Cuba. and was Black. Mr. C?¡rdenas, said it is more than that, calling the opposition?’s strategy a veiled ?“dirty war?” of racism. When asked, the people of Michoac?¡n wanted to be led by people of Michoac?¡n. Ms. Coffigny's skin, the color of caf?© con leche, marked her as a foreigner, some said. When asked why skin color mattered in state with a large Indian population, respondent said: ?“It's one thing to be Brown. The Black race is something different.?” In an interview, Mr. Anaya dismissed the notion that his political message carried racist strains. ?“There is a great feeling that we want to be governed by our own race, by our own people,?” he said. ?“We are a regional people and we want our own people to govern us, people who know our problems, who understand our mentality and our principles.?” Race was rarely a public topic of contention in Mexico, a country that erected monuments to its Indian forebears even as their closest descendants lived in crushing poverty and illiteracy. People said they were unified by a heritage that mixed European and Indian blood, clearing forgetting about the Black blood. The scholar Jos?© Antonio Crespo once described the large mestizo population as a thick, multicolor ?“racial cushion?” that prevented the kind of polarization that existed in the US. Yet, Mr. Crespo added, there was open prejudice in Mexico against those whose features came from the darker side of the national gene pool. ?“Not all Mexicans recognize that they are objects and subjects of racism,?” Mr. Crespo wrote. ?“Most prefer to cover up that reality by affirming that racism was overcome over the length of our numerous social struggles. These struggles may have eradicated racism from our conscience, but not from our daily practices.?” The 1994 armed rebellion in the southern state of Chiapas, which evolved into a national civil rights movement, raised new awareness about the lack of opportunities and miserable living conditions endured by Mexico's Indian minorities. But there had been very little study of what anthropologists call the ?“3rd root?” of Mexican culture, the descendants of African slaves. Mr. C?¡rdenas, an anthropologist, said he had been drawn to Black cultures across Latin America, particularly Cuba. He has traveled with his wife through Mexico's scattered Black communities, situated mostly in the Costa Chica of Guerrero, named after Mexico?’s 2nd President, a Afro-Mestizo and in the gulf coast state of Veracruz. ?“There is not much of a Black conscience in Mexico. It seems the country does not relate to that part of its origin.?” Ms. Coffigny said.
11/11/2001 Taiwan was accepted into the ?“Club?” of nations that defined globe trade, as the 144th member of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
11/11/2003 Heads of state from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Togo were to meet at a summit in the Ghanaian capitol Accra to ?“review the security situation?” in Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer where civil war broke out in 9/2002. In 1/2003, the government of President Laurent Gbagbo, rebels and major political parties signed a peace accord brokered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the country's former colonial power France. But the rebels withdrew from the unity government in 9/03, charging along with every other political party besides Gbagbo's National Unity Party that the President was thwarting implementation of the peace agreement. The rebels, now renamed New Forces, repeatedly demanded that Gbagbo delegate more power to Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, the main official tasked with effecting the agreement. The Ivorian leader had recently been in Ghana and Nigeria for talks, while the New Forces went to Benin, Mali and Senegal on a shuttle mission imploring ECOWAS heads of state to put more pressure on Gbagbo.
11/11/2003 China was accelerating the privatization of tens of thousands of state-owned businesses that once served as pillars of Communist Party rule and decided to let foreign and private investors buy majority stakes in large enterprises the government had previously refused to sell, according to Chinese officials and researchers. A senior Chinese official confirmed the policy shift during a news conference, citing a decision by the party's powerful Central Committee last month that used stronger language to encourage the transfer of state-owned factories and other enterprises into private hands. The official, Li Rongrong, Director of the agency that managed state assets, said the government planned to remain in strategic industries critical to the Chinese economy and national security but added that it was no longer necessary for the state to hold a majority stake in a business to maintain a ?“controlling, influencing and driving force.?” In a sign of the government's enthusiasm, China was scheduled to host an international conference on mergers and acquisitions with a UN agency next week inside Beijing?’s Great Hall of the People, long a symbol of socialist power. Li said the government hoped foreign investors would take stakes in state enterprises and bring technology and better management to the companies.
11/11/2003 A Zambian court ruled that former President Frederick Chiluba was not immune to prosecution on charges he stole more than $30 million of state funds, clearing the way for his trial to proceed. Chiluba, who ruled the southern African country for 10 years from 1991, denied the charges. Zambia's Constitution shielded ex-Presidents from prosecution for crimes committed while in office, but a magistrate ruled that this immunity did not apply in the pending case.
11/11/2003 Colombia?’s Environment Minister, Cecilia Rodriguez, stepped down, the 3rd cabinet Minister to resign from President Alvaro Uribe's government within a week. She was immediately replaced by Sandra Sanchez, who had led the administration of the US-funded anti-drug Plan Colombia. Uribe, who took office 15 months ago, had said he wished to keep all his Ministers for his 4-year term. But following the 10/25 defeat of a cost-cutting referendum, Uribe launched a cabinet shake-up as he pushed harsh fiscal reforms in Congress.
11/11/2003 A retired Oregon police chief arrived in Liberia?’s capitol to head a special UN mission charged with rebuilding the volatile and war-shattered nation?’s ill-trained and ill-equipped police force. Mark Kroeker of Portland will lead more than 1,100 civilian officers from 46 countries, including a number of African nations, Jordan, Thailand, Norway, Sweden and Russia.
11/12/1815 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, future American suffragist, was born in Johnstown, NY.
11/12/1918 While there was no official Black-American flag, probably the best known was Marcus Garvey?’s Pan-African flag, 3 wide bands of red, black and green. The 1st report of the flag was made by a police spy who described the red, black and green
flag in the offices of Garvey?’s newspaper, The Negro World. The spy/agent quoted Garvey?’s explanation of the 3 colors: ?“the black race between blood and nature to win its rights.?” (See: 1920 and 8/1/1920).
11/12/1931 Norman Yoshio Mineta, future Japanese-American internee, Democrat and will become the 1st Japanese-American to serve in a US Presidential Cabinet; Mayor, San Jose, CA. (1971-1974), elected as a Democrat to the 94th US Congress and to the 10 succeeding Congresses (1/3/1975-10/10/1995, resigned), US Secretary of Commerce in the Cabinet of President William J. Clinton, 2000-2001 and Secretary of Transportation in the Cabinet of President George W. Bush (1/25/2001- ?), was born in San Jose, Santa Clara County, CA.
11/12/1938 Steve Tshwete in 1964, during White minority apartheid rule, will be sentenced to 15 years in prison for promoting the African National Congress (ANC). He will be released in 1979 and 4 years later he will play a major role in the formation of a domestic anti-apartheid umbrella organization, the United Democratic Front. He will become one of its most visible spokesmen in his home region, the Eastern Cape, before going into exile in Zambia in 1985. While in exile, Mr. Tshwete will become involved with the armed wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe, which means Spear of the Nation. He will return from exile in 1990 after the ban on the ANC will be lifted to become the party's national organizer. Mr. Tshwete, will become a supporter of President Thabo Mbeki, become a member of the National Executive Committee of the governing ANC. He will be promoted to the Safety and Security ministry in mid-1999 after serving as Sports Minister, was born in Springs, east of Johannesburg and his family moved to the Eastern Cape while he was still an infant (d: 4/26/2002 at age 63 in a military hospital in Pretoria).
11/12/1948 Former Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo and several other WW II Japanese leaders were sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.
11/12/1968 Reies Lopez Tijerina was found not guilty in the 1st of 2 trials for the Tierra Amarilla raid on 6/5/1967.
11/12/1977 Ernest N. (Dutch) Morial was elected the 1st Black-American Mayor of New Orleans,
LA.
11/12/1990 Japanese Emperor Akihito formally assumed the Chrysanthemum Throne.
11/12/2001 US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said that it might soon be necessary to send an international ?“coalition of the willing,?” led by soldiers from Muslim nations, to secure the Afghanistan capitol of Kabul and prepare the ground for an interim government. He said he expected advancing Northern Alliance forces to mass north of the capital within 24 hours. Soon after he spoke came the 1st reports that the Taliban were leaving. Secretary Powell said Turkey, Bangladesh and Indonesia (whose people were predominantly Muslim) had offered forces for an operation that would buttress a ?“bridging political structure?” under UN control. He excluded the deployment of Americans in this force, saying it would be better to have Muslim countries ?“than one of the big-power nations coming in to do it.?”
11/12/2002 Former Black police officer Yvette Walton, 40, who was fired after criticizing the NYPD following the 2/4/1999 shooting, 41 times, of Guinean Amadou Diallo, accepted an agreement with NYC whereby the city agreed to pay her $327,500. The police department also agreed to reinstate her so that she could retire with a pension. Former police commissioner Howard Safir had testified that Walton was fired for disciplinary reasons unrelated to her comments. Walton had worn disguises or had her voice electronically altered as she criticized the department at a news conference, on a national TV program and at a City Council meeting. She was fired soon after those appearances and statements.
11/12/2002 Despite its 13-year ban on the ivory trade, a UN conservation group voted to let Botswana, Namibia and South Africa sell about 66 tons of legally stockpiled elephant ivory. The one-time sales, which would take place after 5/2004 if all conditions were met, would be the 1st legal ivory sales since 1997, when similar one-time sales were approved for southern African countries. Those sales of 55 tons brought about $5 million. All 3 countries had submitted proposals at the meeting in Santiago, Chile, of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to sell ivory collected from elephants that died of natural causes or were killed as part of government programs to control problem animals. The ban on trade in ivory was introduced in 1989 because of the devastation of African elephants by poachers. Since then, the 3 countries argued, conservation efforts had led to healthy increases in their elephant herds that warranted the resumption of ivory sales. Environmental groups decried the decision to allow the 1-time sales as premature, arguing that effective programs for monitoring elephant populations and poaching should be functioning before sales were even considered. Such programs would help to determine if the sales promoted increased poaching (See: 11/10/2002).
11/12/2002 Curtis Robinson's East Granby, CT-based C&R Development Company was getting ready to begin construction on his dream: Seven Hills Beach Resort and Casino in St. Croix, the 1st Black-owned casino in the US Virgin Islands. The St. Croix Senate voted unanimously, approving the $536 million project that will be handled by Robin Bay Associates LLC, a division of C&R, which was awarded a casino license in 12/2001 and will be located on the south shore of the island. Groundbreaking was set for 12/2002 and the project was expected to be completed by the 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2005. Robinson said he chose St. Croix because it's located in the US and off the coasts of both Florida and Puerto Rico. Once the project is finished, Robinson will be able to reciprocate the support he received from St. Croix, estimating that ?“Seven Hills will employ 7,000 people and generate at least $1 million for the local economy.?”
11/12/2002 The South African Khulamani support group for victims of apartheid, sued several top international banks and businesses for supporting the racist regime by filing a lawsuit in federal court in NYC on behalf of the group?’s 33,000 members and 85 individuals. The plaintiffs alleged Citigroup, the largest financial institution in the US and Swiss banking giants UBS and Credit Suisse aided the ?“in the commission of crimes of apartheid, forced labor, genocide, extrajudical killing, torture, sexual assault, unlawful detention and cruel, unusual and degrading treatment.?” Credit Suisse and UBS said they saw no grounds for the class-action lawsuit and said the companies should not be held responsible for apartheid's crimes. The 3 major banks were also being sued in a similar lawsuit filed in 6/2002 in the US District Court in Manhattan on behalf of Holocaust victims. Other companies and banks named in the Khulumani lawsuit were: Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Exxon Mobil, Caltex Petroleum, Fluor Corporation, Ford, General Motors and IBM in the US; German -based Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, DaimlerChrysler and Rheinmetall; Credit Suisse and UBS in Switzerland; Barclays Bank, British Petroleum and Fujitsu ICL in Britain; Total-Fina-Elf from France and Royal Dutch Shell from the Netherlands.
11/12/2002 New Mexico voters last week rejected a proposal that would had removed language in the state Constitution that historically targeted Asian immigrants, preventing them from owning land. New Mexico and Florida were the last 2 states to have such a law on the books. Asians today owned property in New Mexico; their rights were guaranteed by the US Supreme Court [under federal law, despite the contrary state provision -- Ed.]. With 99% of the precincts reporting, 46% voted in favor and 54% against the measure. State Senator Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, who introduced the amendment in the Legislature, said: ?“This is really a black eye for the state. I worry that this is sending the exact wrong message that New Mexicans don't have a sense of inclusiveness.?”
11/12/2002 In a near-unanimous voice the UN General Assembly called on the US to end its 42-year embargo against Cuba. The vote marked the 11th consecutive year the 185-member General Assembly had adopted a resolution in favor of lifting the embargo. States voted 173 countries in favor, 4 abstentions and 3 against. Client states Israel and the Marshall Islands were the only countries that sided with the US. The resolution charged the US with violating the ?“purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the UN.?” Not so, said the US delegate. ?“The US embargo against Cuba was strictly a matter of bilateral policy,?” Sichan Siv, US representative to the UN Economic and Social Council, told delegates. ?“It is not a subject which the General Assembly should spend valuable time considering.?” Since 1992, when the General Assembly 1st adopted a resolution calling for an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade, the stance had been reiterated every year with increasingly greater support. Last year 167 countries voted in favor.
11/12/2003 Less than 6 months before South Africa?’s 3d presidential election, the governing African National Congress was embroiled in an internal bloodletting that it seemed powerless to stop. Already the volley of charges and countercharges had hurt the reputations of the Deputy President Jacob Zuma and the National Prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka. With the opening of what appeared likely to become a lengthy inquiry into some of the allegations, President Thabo Mbeki may be hurt politically as well. For the last week, the South African public had focused on the juiciest aspect of the affair: the revelation that Vanessa Brereton, a White human rights lawyer who seemed to be a comrade in arms in the African National Congress's struggle against apartheid during the 1980's was in fact a spy for the apartheid government. Brereton, went public a week ago on South African television with a tearful confession that she had betrayed Black South Africans?’ struggle for freedom because she was in love with a senior officer in the apartheid government's security police.
11/12/2003 Signs that the US economy may be recovering from a 2-year slump may not immediately affect the state of the country's minority groups, which still boasted high rates of unemployment that experts said were due to factors including discrimination and age. ?“All too often, when the economy sours, African- Americans tend to feel the brunt of it more so than any other ethnic group. We are unemployed for a longer period of time and are less likely to receive unemployment insurance benefits,?” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-MD., Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. While the US Department of Labor reported that joblessness in America had declined in 10/03, lawmakers on Capitol Hill contend that the Black unemployment rate rose to 11.5% in the last month, up from 11.2% last month and a hike of more than 2% in one year, Cummings said. Cummings said that close to 30% of Blacks who were unemployed had been out of work for 27 weeks or more or 6 months without a paycheck. A report released in early 10/03 by the Pew Hispanic Center found that Hispanics in the US had not recovered from the 2001 recession and were affected more than Blacks or Whites as jobs became tougher to find. The center conducted nonpartisan research aimed at improving understanding of the Hispanic population. Some 500,000 Hispanics were unable to find jobs as a result of the recession. Prior to the downturn in the economy Hispanic employment was growing at a rate of 5% per year. By the end of the recession in the last quarter of 2002, that rate had fallen to 0%. Since then it had grown to 2%, well below the pre-recession rate.
11/12/2003 Botswana?’s President, Festus G. Mogae, said that one of the biggest obstacles to a rapid expansion of treatment for people with AIDS in his country was not so much a lack of money or drugs as a dearth of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health workers. The nonprofit groups, foreign governments and international organizations that had come to help Botswana cope with its AIDS crisis had hired away many skilled health professionals in the country's public health system with offers of better pay and benefits, he said. Mr. Mogae said this internal brain drain had been compounded by the departure of doctors and nurses for other countries. Britain alone had recruited more than 120 of Botswana?’s nurses, Mr. Mogae said. Botswana had sought to counter the loss of talent by recruiting health professionals from poorer African countries, which had their own AIDS crises, as well as from India and Cuba. ?“We'll be lucky if we get them,?” Mr. Mogae said. The shortage of people and a slower-than-expected pace in building clinics, laboratories and drug warehouses had delayed the expansion of Botswana's AIDS program. It had been almost 2 years since Botswana, one of the most prosperous, well-run countries in Africa, began a national effort to provide free drug treatment to the estimated 110,000 people who need it. So far only about 10,000 people were getting help, far fewer than Mr. Mogae had expected. Botswana was paying for 70% of its AIDS program and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Merck Company Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the pharmaceutical company, had each donated $50 million. Dr. Ernest Darkoh, operational manager for Botswana?’s effort to expand treatment with antiretroviral drugs, said the loss of skilled people to the government's private partners, who could pay 5 to 10 times as much as the government, was a serious problem.
11/12/2003 Dr. BraVada Garrett-Akinsanya, a clinical psychologist, said ?“children as early as 3 years old recognize the differences between being Black or being White.?” During this period in early childhood Black children discover that being White has its advantages. They quickly incorporate the notion that being Black is a negative trait, while being White is a positive one. For example, children learn that Devil's food cake is dark, but Angel's food cake is white; magic is good unless it becomes black magic and then it becomes evil; and even a lie is acceptable if it is a white lie. The 1st time racism confronts children is in books. In books, ?“children see which people are given power, who is acting bravely and wisely,?” says Leslie R. Williams, professor of early childhood and multicultural education at Teacher's College, Columbia U in NYC. In many children's books, the Black characters are not portrayed as brave or wise people. Thus, it is important for parents to read children's books in which Black characters play positive roles, this was particularly crucial in the first few years of life.
11/12/2003 Jailed right-wing leader Eugene Terre'Blanche,59, was sentenced to 6 years in prison for bombings ahead of South Africa?’s 1st democratic elections in 1994, prosecutors said. The former leader of the Neo-Nazi Afrikaner Resistance Movement, who was serving a 5-year jail term for attempted murder, admitted in the Potchefstroom Regional Court that he had ordered 5 bombings. He agreed to a plea-bargain arrangement with prosecutors in which he would plead guilty to bombing charges in return for a suspended jail term. Terre'Blanche was jailed in 2001 for 5 years for the 1996 attempted murder of Paul Motshabi, a Black man and a former security guard so severely beaten that he was left permanently disabled.
11/13/1839 The Liberty Party, the 1st anti-slavery political party, was organized by moderate White abolitionists and convened in Warsaw, NY.
11/13/1856 Louis Dembitz Brandeis, future jurist and the 1st Jewish Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1916-39), was born in Louisville, KY. (d: 10/5/1941 at age 84).
11/13/1913 Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, who performed the 1st successful open hear surgery (7/9/1893), became the 1st Black-American elected to and one of the 1st members of the American College of Surgeons, founded in 1913.
11/13/1940 The US Supreme Court in Hansberry v. Lee, brought by wealthy real-estate broker
Carl Hansberry of Chicago, allowed the Hansberry family, including 10-year-old daughter Lorraine, to move into a White neighborhood, decided that it was illegal for Whites to exclude Blacks from segregated White neighborhoods.
11/13/1956, The US Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses and protests began to expand to secure other Constitutionally guaranteed rights for Black people in public facilities.
11/13/1964 The remains of the Right Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey were exhumed in London and reentered into a special Marcus Garvey Memorial in National Heroes Park in Kingston, Jamaica. It was here that Garvey was declared Jamaica?’s 1st national hero.
11/13/1967 Carl Stokes, a member of the Ohio state legislature was helped by SCLC and CORE voter registration drives, became the 1st Black Mayor of a major city, Cleveland, OH.
11/13/1982 The Vietnam Veteran Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.
11/13/1993 African Stock Exchanges Association (ASEA) was registered in Nairobi with the object of, inter alia, establishing an association for systematic mutual cooperation, exchange of information, materials and persons, mutual assistance and joint programs between the members. The association also assisted members in the establishment of Stock Exchanges and the development of financial instruments and promotion of stockbrokers and dealers. It also assisted in developing and establishing standards of training and professionalism amongst stockbrokers and dealers, standards of listing, trading and settlement of securities and development of services associated with the Capital Markets and establishment of a data bank and information system. Members of ASEA were: Abidjan Stock Exchange, Cote D'Ivoire; Botswana Stock Exchange, Gaborone, Botswana; Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchanges, Egypt; Casablanca Stock Exchange, Morocco; Dar-es-Salaam Stock Exchange, Tanzania; Ghana Stock Exchange, Accra, Ghana; JSE Securities Exchange South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa; Uganda Securities Exchange Ltd, Kampala, Uganda; Lusaka Stock Exchange, Zambia; Malawi Stock Exchange, Blantyre, Malawi; Mozambique Stock Exchange; Nairobi Stock Exchange, Kenya; Namibian Stock Exchange, Windhoek, Namibia; The Nigerian Stock Exchange, Lagos, Nigeria; Stock Exchange of Mauritius Ltd, Port Lous, Mauritius; Swaziland Stock Exchange, Mbabane, Swaziland; Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, Harare Zimbabwe and Bond Exchange of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa.
11/13/1998 The IMF, World Bank and leading industrial nations announced a $41.5 billion rescue package for Brazil.
11/13/2001 Despite international appeals to stay out of the capital, Northern Alliance police and military units moved into Kabul after Taliban troops fled south toward their stronghold of Kandahar. The Alliance's Defense Minister, General Mohammad Fahim and its Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, drove into the city followed by about 2,000 uniformed Alliance forces, split between police officers and a military unit, both of them specially trained to maintain security. General Basir Salengi said he had orders from the Alliance's Interior and Defense Ministers not to enter Kabul. ?“We will get an order to enter the city,?” he said, ?“but to only go to the military bases.?” US President Bush had urged the Alliance to stay out of the capital until a new, broad-based government could be formed to take over from the Taliban. Pakistan repeated its insistence that the Northern Alliance not occupy Kabul, saying no single group would be able to bring peace to Afghanistan. ?“It is our hope that calm prevails and bloodshed is avoided,?” Aziz Ahmed Khan, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a news conference in Islamabad. He said a ?“broad-based multiethnic?” government set up under the auspices of the UN ?“would be the best guarantee for peace in Afghanistan.?” The Alliance was made up mostly of ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks and the Taliban of the country's dominant Pashtun tribe.
11/13/2001 Persian King Xerxes?’ mystical canal was discovery by scientists from Britain and Greece and was a testament to ancient engineering skills (See: 480BC).
11/13/2001 Bishop Wilton Gregory, 53, who was taking over as the 1st Black President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, would help lead an increasingly diverse church as it worked to provide moral guidance on the war against international terror. Gregory will be leading an American Catholic community that was becoming more diverse through a growing number of Asian and Hispanic immigrants. Black Catholics saw Gregory's election as evidence of recognition they have long sought from church leaders. Black Catholics were estimated to range from 2 million to 3.5 million, out of 63.7 million Catholics nationwide.
11/13/2001 It was announced that Saudi Arabia, considered a close ally of the US, would be among those countries, most of them Islamic, whose citizens would be subjected to background checks when they applied for a visa by the US State Department. For the 12 months ending 9/30/01, Saudis applying either in their own country or in others were issued more than 60,000 US visas, according to State Department figures. The number was the largest for any Arab country and 2nd only to Israel, with more than 143,000 visas, among countries in the Middle East. American officials in Saudi Arabia declined to say how many visa applications had been received and approved in 10 and 11/01, but they said that there was no doubt that the levels for both were far lower than in any recent year.
11/13/2002 Mr. Patrice Motsepe owned 3 gold mines and employed about 5,500 workers; 5 months ago his company, African Rainbow Minerals, became the 1st new gold company to be listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in more than a decade. But these days, Mr. Motsepe often seemed a lonely pinstriped figure in a sea of White faces. Eight years after the end of apartheid brought Black politicians to power and Black-controlled companies to the stock exchange, South Africa was faltering in its struggle to build a successful class of corporate titans from its fledgling Black elite. For many of southern Africa's young democracies, changing the complexion of the corporate world was the next challenge. Repressive White governments no longer control this region, but their legacy lingered in the low skills and the lack of capital of many Blacks. White minorities in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe continued to dominate local economies and aspiring Black business executives continued to struggle. By 2014, President Thabo Mbeki's cabinet recently announced, South Africa's Black majority should hold major (as yet largely unspecified) stakes in the economy, which was Africa's largest. The news left White business executives and foreign investors jittery; Whites about 12% of the population, owned more than 70% of the land and dominate the banking, manufacturing and tourism industries. White-run companies control 95% of the country's diamond production, 63% of platinum reserves and 51% of gold reserves, officials said. Everyone agreed that such lingering inequities were untenable.
11/13/2002 A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group again called on US President Bush and other elected officials to repudiate anti- Islamic rhetoric, just as American Muslims repudiated anti-Christian or anti-Semitic hate speech. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) made that request following 2 more in a series of attacks on Islam and Muslims by right-wing and evangelical commentators. (CAIR recently issued a statement opposing anti-Semitism that read in part: ?“Just as we ask others to condemn anti-Muslim rhetoric...we must challenge those who would fan the flames of anti-Semitism.?”) In a 11/10/02 broadcast, televangelist Jimmy Swaggar referred to the Prophet Muhammad as a ?“sex deviant?” and ?“pervert.?” He also called for the expulsion of all foreign Muslim university students in the US and for profiling of airline passengers ?“with a diaper on their head and a fan-belt around their waist.?” Of American Muslims, Swaggart said: ?“We ought to tell every other Moslem (sic) living in this nation that if you say one word, you're gone.?” CAIR also called on the president to repudiate similar comments made this week by televangelist Pat Robertson describing Muslims as being ?“worse than the Nazis.?” Robertson had in the past called the Prophet Muhammad ?“an absolute wild-eyed fanatic,?” a ?“robber?” and a ?“brigand.?” He also called Islam ?“a monumental scam?” and claimed the Quran, Islam's revealed text, ?“is strictly a theft of Jewish theology.?” (A charity created by Robertson, recently received a $500,000 grant under the president's faith-based initiative.) Franklin Graham, another evangelical leader, had called Islam an ?“evil and wicked religion.?” These and other attacks on Islam came as the US State Department was engaged in a worldwide ad campaign to portray Americans as being free of anti-Muslims bias (See: 10/13/2002).
11/13/2002 Syria, which voted for a UN Security Council resolution demanding Baghdad disarm, said it would not join any US-led attack on Iraq. ?“Any strike on Iraq outside the framework of the UN, even with the formation of an international alliance or coalition under the leadership of the US, we will absolutely not be a part of,?” Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara told reporters. Shara said the current resolution, which Syria said it voted for to avert war, did not authorize an automatic attack on Iraq. Syria had been expected to abstain from the Security Council vote, but said it went along with the majority after being assured that the text did not include an ?“automatic trigger?” for military action, which Shara suggested did not have a UN mandate. Shara said that war or peace lay with the Security Council and arms inspectors, calling on all sides to avoid provocation.
11/14/1889 Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) a reporter for the New York World, was inspired by Jules Verne and set out to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She succeeded, making the trip in 72 days.
11/14/1889 Jawaharlal Nehru, future Indian independence leader and Prime Minister (1947-64), was born (d: 5/27/1964 at age 74).
11/14/1900 The Washington Society of Colored Dentists, the 1st Black-American dentists?’ association, was formed in Washington, DC because Blacks were excluded from White professional groups.
11/14/1915 Booker T. Washington, pragmatist for Black useful education and advancement, died at age 59 (b: 4/5/1856, Franklin County, VA).
11/14/1922 Boutros Boutros-Ghali, future Egyptian United Nations Secretary-General, was born.
11/14/1935 The Philippines were proclaimed a free Commonwealth of the US by President Roosevelt.
11/14/1935 Hussein, future King of Jordan (1953-99), was born (d: 2/7/1999 at age 63).
11/14/1942 The USS Mason DE-529 was commissioned and had the distinction of being the only US Navy destroyer to be manned with a predominantly Black enlisted crew. That was the 1st time that Black Americans were permitted to be trained and serve in ratings other than cooks and stewards. In late 1943 the Navy announced its plan to place an all Black crew with White officers aboard Mason. One hundred and sixty Black Sailors were enrolled in all fields of operational and technical training and manned the ship at commissioning. Although known as ?“Eleanor?’s Folly?” for Eleanor Roosevelt?’s introduction of the idea for an all Black crew, the Mason served with distinction during World War II. During the worst North Atlantic storm of the century, Mason was serving as escort to a convoy of merchant ships bound for England. During the storm the convoy was forced to break up and Mason was chosen to escort a section of ships to their destiny. With land in sight the Mason?’s deck split threatening the structural integrity of the ship. Emergency repairs were conducted and Mason returned immediately to assist the remainder of the convoy. The Mason crew was recommended for commendations from both their captain, Lieutenant Commander Bill Blackford and the convoy commander, Commander Alfred Lind. The commendations were never rewarded. At the end of the war Mason was assigned as a training ship operating from Miami, FL until being decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1947. On 7/26/1947 President Truman signed Executive Order 9981, officially desegregating the armed forces. Through the efforts of the Mason veterans and the author Mary Pat Kelly, the Mason story had been chronicled in the book ?“Proudly We Served.?” Their persistence in telling the Mason story paid off in 1994 when President Clinton awarded the long overdue commendation to 67 surviving crewmembers. In 1998, then Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton made official his decision to name an Arleigh Burke Destroyer the USS MASON DDG 87 to mark the contributions of USS MASON DE 529 Sailors to equality and desegregation in our Navy?’s ranks.
11/14/1954 Condoleeza Rice, future Black-American kid progeny who will enter the University of Denver at age 15, graduate at age 19, will become Special Assistant to the US Joint Chiefs(1986), Senior Director, National Security Counsel under US President George Bush (1989-91), Provost, Senior Fellow and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University (1981-2000) and US National Security Advisor (12/17/2000), was born.
11/14/1962 Eritrea became a province within the Ethiopian Empire and in the same year the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) was formed which led a movement for independence from Ethiopia and embarked on a sporadic guerrilla war against the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie's forces.
11/14/2001 Upper-income Black- and Latino-Americans were more likely to receive a subprime loan at a higher interest rate than were low-income Whites in Kansas City, MO. and other large cities, according to a new study. The study by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a national community advocacy group, said minority borrowers were ?“massively targeted?” for high-cost loans by predatory lenders. Black homeowners were found to have been 4 times said Latinos were found to have been twice as likely than White homebuyers to receive a subprime, high-interest loan. Kansas City was among 10 cities in which lenders who specialize in subprime loans accounted for the largest share of loan refinancing to Blacks and Latino homeowners. The study said subprime lenders in Kansas City accounted for 61.7% of all the refinance loans made to Blacks and 39.1% of those made to Latinos. In comparison, subprime lenders accounted for 20.7% of the refinance loans market.
11/14/2001 Now more than ever, the countries of Africa, among them some of the world's youngest independent nations, were talking, consulting each other about everything from cooperating to end wars and finding solutions to stem the spread of AIDS to demanding a larger role on the stage of world politics. In this heightened air of cooperation and political activity on the continent some hear the awakening of a long-sleeping giant, the birthing pains of a new, more stable, united Africa. The most palpable sign of this resurgent pan-Africanism was the creation of the African Union (AU) earlier this year in Lusaka, Zambia. A replacement of the 1960s-born Organization of African Unity (OAU), the new body was organized and ratified by African states and given the mandate to integrate the continent economically and politically. In 6/2001 African leaders elected Amara Essy, a politician and diplomat from the Ivory Coast, to lead the transition. However taxing the job ahead for Essy and other proponents of the African Union, considerable political and economic activity was already underway around the continent to help speed unification on its way. Political and trade blocs already existed to link countries in the eastern, western, northern and southern regions of the continent and talks were underway for common television and radio stations in several parts of Africa. The cause of African unity, which was sometimes regarded only as a sub-Saharan or Black African political endeavor, had been receiving significant support from several non-Black leaders, including White South Africans and Arabs in northern Africa. Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has pumped millions of dollars into the African Union from his oil-rich country. Along with support, the controversial Libyan leader widely reviled in the west sometimes brought negative attention to the African Union, as some journalists and pundits around the world eyed his involvement with suspicion. But Tajudeen Abdul- Raheem, General-Secretary of the Global Pan African Network, from his organization's headquarters in Kampala, called any concern about Qaddafi's involvement an ?“insult?” to African leaders. ?“That 54 African Heads of State can sit down and ratify a document without any other consideration other than that Qaddafi is manipulating them is rubbish,?” he said, pointing out that Qaddafi ?“did not invent Pan-Africanism. He did not invent the OAU. What he is doing is helping to speed up the process.?” While the benefits of political and economic integration seemed to outweigh the criticisms raised against it, the road ahead would be rough. Individual African countries still wrestled with gaping social inequality and conditions of poverty that exacerbated tensions between ethnic and religious groups often pitted against one another for political ends. In addition, the continent, although rich in natural resources and raw materials, was still severely impoverished. Per capita income on the continent averaged $500 a year; 20 of the poorest nations on the UN's Human Development Index were in Africa; the entire continent had 14 telephone lines to 1,000 people; and the share of world trade for the continent's least developed countries has fallen from 0.6 to 0.3%.
11/14/2002 US Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-(San Francisco) CA.), 62, was chosen on a 177-29 vote by House Democrats to become the 1st woman ever to head a political party's caucus, Minority Whip, in Congress. Democrats tasked the veteran California congresswoman with reviving a party stunned by election setbacks and facing a political landscape in which the White House and both houses of Congress were to be controlled by Republicans. Democrats settled on the liberal Pelosi to succeed Dick Gephardt of MO., who ended his 8 years as party leader after an election where Republicans cemented their control over the House and won back the majority in the Senate. Twenty-nine Democrats voted for Rep. Harold Ford of TN, who had decided last Friday to challenge Pelosi for the job. Rep. Nancy Kaptur, an OH Democrat who got into the race only this week, pulled out before the vote. Pelosi's selection came a day after Republicans picked a solidly conservative leadership team, with Senator Trent Lott and House Speaker Dennis Hastert remaining at the helm, intent on advancing President Bush's agenda of lower taxes and increased attention to national security. As Democratic leader, Pelosi was certain to be at odds with the hard-driving conservative Tom DeLay, the current Republican whip and newly elected majority leader, succeeding fellow Texan Dick Armey, who was retiring.
11/14/2002 President Jiang Zemin, 76, stepped down as head of the Chinese Communist Party and succeeded in forcing the early retirement of a longtime rival and political maverick whom some consider the most liberal of the nation's top leaders. At the end of the party's 16th National Congress, Jiang retired from the Standing Committee of the Politburo along with his rival, Li Ruihuan, 68, and 4 other members. The only member to remain was Vice President Hu Jintao, 59, Jiang's heir apparent, in what may be the smoothest and at least on paper, the most complete transfer of power in the party's tumultuous history. The new Politburo and its all-powerful Standing Committee would be introduced to the world after the Central Committee concluded its 1st meeting. Among those expected to rise to the pinnacle of power were Zeng Qinghong, Jiang's right-hand man and as many as 3 other Jiang allies, giving Jiang's supporters a majority.
11/14/2002 US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell made a lightning-fast visit to Canada to soothe bruised feelings over how the US had implemented new border checks of Canadian citizens. The new program, introduced on the anniversary of 9/11, required citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Sudan to be photographed and fingerprinted as they enter the US. But Canadians with dual citizenship and Canadians born in those 5 countries also appeared to have been targeted, as had men from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Yemen. The Canadian news media had avidly covered the dispute, including the arrests of Canadians who were deemed suspicious by US authorities. Michel Jalbert, 32, of Quebec, was arrested 10/11/02 for crossing a few yards into Maine to buy gasoline, after US officials spotted a hunting rifle in his car. A Syrian-born Canadian dual-citizen, Maher Arar of Montreal, was detained 9/26 by US immigration agents as he tried to change planes in New York on his way to Ottawa and he was deported to Syria and placed into detention.
11/14/2002 Republicans won last week's elections by carrying majorities of men and Whites, marginally increasing their support among Hispanics and benefitting from a slightly lower turnout by Blacks, a survey claimed. Overall, the survey showed, 50 % of voters said they voted for Republicans and 46% for Democrats. While small, that 4 percentage-point edge for Republicans was a marked improvement over the 49-49 percentage-point tie in the 2000 congressional elections. And it produced a significant result: Republicans defied a 60-year history of midterm losses in Congress for a 1st-term president's party by winning control of the Senate and increasing their majority in the House of Representatives.
11/14/2003 King Mswati of Swaziland accepted a new national Constitution that safeguarded monarchical rule and appointed Themba Dlamini, a member of the royal clan as his new Prime Minister. Dlamini, the 9th Prime Minister since Swaziland?’s independence from Great Britain in 1968, had for over 10 years run the royal conglomerate, Tibiyo TakaNgwane. The conglomerate, which paid no taxes, partnered with, or owned portions of, many large businesses in the kingdom. The assets of Tibiyo TakaNgwane were intended to be held in trust by King Mswati for the Swazi people. But pro-democracy advocates charged that profits primarily benefitted the royal family. Swaziland?’s Prime Minister and cabinet did not make policy, but acted in an administrative capacity to carry out goals determined by the palace.
11/14/2003 A Indian court ordered an investigation into the deaths of more than 1,400 government employees in eastern Bihar State, most of whom died of starvation or committed suicide because they had not been paid in more than a decade. The federal Central Bureau of Investigations will conduct the inquiry. ?“The state government created such conditions that forced the 1,428 employees to die or commit suicide,?” the court said, charging that state officials responsible for running 45 public sector units stole money meant for the employees, causing many of the units to close down. ?“It is a strange paradox that while the state officials of the undertakings made merry in foreign trips and big hotels, the employees died of starvation,?” it said.
11/14/2003 A Pan-African Parliament will come into being in mid-December now that a 24th African Union (AU) member state, Senegal, had ratified the African Economic Community treaty, the AU said in the Ethiopian capitol, Addis Ababa. Senegal's instrument of ratification was deposited and the protocol establishing the Parliament was to enter into force 30 days hence, the AU said in a statement. For the first 5 years of its existence the Pan-African Parliament would have only consultative and advisory powers, the statement said. The body would evolve into an institution with full legislative powers, with members elected by universal adult suffrage from all 53 AU member states, it added. In addition to the Pan-African Parliament, the AU also planned to set up a Peace and Security Council, a common court of justice and, eventually, a common African currency.
11/14/2003 Last month Jamaican Prime Minister Percival Patterson proposed that his country and the US establish an agreement that would see teachers and nurses trained for ?“export.?” It was an idea Jamaica had been pushing within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for some time. CARICOM officials agreed at a meeting last year to examine the possibility of ?“managed migration,?” but to date the grouping had not taken an official position on the issue. Managed migration would see professionals trained to work abroad on a rotating basis, with a certain percentage of them migrating and returning to their home countries every few years. But the President of the Caribbean Nurses Organisation, Delores Gumbs, personally disliked the idea of preparing nurses for ?“export.?” But the President of the Jamaica Teachers Association, Wentworth Gabbidon supported the proposal. The debate was a sign of the region?’s urgent need to deal with the continuous outflow of qualified professionals. Barbados reported a teacher turnover rate of 2.8% in 1999 and 1.8% in 2000, while Trinidad and Tobago had a turnover rate of 4.5% at the secondary level and 2.4% at the primary level from 1998-2000. The problem regarding nurses was also serious. According to 1996 figures, for example, in Barbados 16.1% of the nursing staff resigned, while in St. Kitts the figure was 19%; 3.8% in Guyana and 5.6% in Dominica.
11/14/2003 Uganda was banking its future on 1,400 girls, young women, really, plucked from their villages around the country and plopped down in front of row upon row of sewing machines at a vast factory here outside the capitol. Every time they stitch a pocket, attach a button or hem a skirt, the leaders of the land tell them, they are performing acts of patriotism that will help transform this country's economy. These were the AGOA girls, as the Ugandans call them, named for the American trade legislation that lured their employer, Tri-Star Apparel, from Sri Lanka to Uganda. To hear President Yoweri Museveni tell it, AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, approved by Congress in 2000, was the best thing the West has done for Africa. For the 1st time in some African countries, the largest employer was no longer the federal government but a private enterprise. Kenya had projected 50,000 AGOA-related jobs. Lesotho estimated it had created 10,000 new jobs in the last year, most of them going to young women. Although products from oil to umbrellas to fresh yams were included under the trade law, clothing exports appeared to be giving stagnant African economies the biggest stimulus. Foreign apparel manufacturers, mostly from Asia, had made a beeline to Africa, mostly because the trade law allowed them to sidestep quotas that limited the apparel they may export from Asia to the US. By shifting to Africa, manufacturers could operate quota free under the law. While jobs had been created, most of those getting rich from AGOA were not Africans but Asian investors, rising numbers of whom had returned to Uganda after being expelled in the 1970's by the former dictator Idi Amin.
11/15/218 BC The Carthaginian, modern-day Tunis, North African, General Hannibal (247-183BC), a military genius, crossed the Alps with 80,000 infantry, 12,000 calvary, and 40 African war elephants, conquering major portions of Spain and France and all of Italy, except for Rome.
11/15/1805 Sacagawea, Indian guide, and York, a Black-American slave while technically Clark's valet, also distinguished himself as a scout, interpreter, and emissary to the Native Americans encountered on the expedition, were both members/affiliated of/with the Lewis and Clark exploration party reached the mouth of the Columbia River.
11/15/1884 The Berlin Conference was organized, without African participation, and attended by Europeans to decide issues regarding the colonization of Africa, such as which parts of the continent would be "owned" by the which participant, with the exceptions of Liberia and Ethiopia which were to remain free countries.
11/15/1887 Granville T. Woods received a patent for the Synchronous Multiplier Railway Telegraph.
11/15/1889 Brazil?’s monarch, Emperor Pedro II, was overthrown in a military coup led by Marshal of the Army Deodoro da Fonseca with support from the coffee aristocracy and established the Federal Republic of Brazil ruled via fiat and puppet Presidents until approximately 1930.
11/15/1889 A Brazilian coup replaced the monarchy, Dom Pedro II.
11/15/1897 Black Republican US Congressman John Mercer Langston, attorney (1854), recruiter of Black troops for the 54th and 55th Massachusetts and the 5th Ohio Regiments, US Minister to Haiti (1877), US Charge d?’Affaires to Santo Domingo (1883-85), Republican US Congressman from VA (9/3/2890-3/3/1891), Dean of the Law School at Howard University and President of Howard University, died at age 67 in Washington, DC ( b: 12/14/1829 a slave in Louisa, Louisa County, VA.).
11/15/1941 Stokely Carmichael aka: Kwame Ture, future civil rights activist, head of SNCC and father of the ?“Black Power Movement,?” was born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad (d: 11/15/1998 in Guinea on his 57 birthday).
11/15/1944 The Black B-3-b unit became part of the General Cryptanalytic Branch, now the National Security Agency (NSA) under Lieutenant Buffham and Bill Coffee, exploited nongovernmental commercial code messages originating from Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Turkey, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Indochina, Thailand, Japan, Egypt, South Africa, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru and Argentina. In 4/1945, it was assigned responsibility for exploiting the diplomatic systems of Belgium, Haiti, Liberia and Luxembourg. In 2/1947, the practice of having a Caucasian as the nominal head of the Commercial Code unit ended with the appointment of Herman Phynes to the position of Officer in Charge (O.I.C.). Although B-3-b was a unique and unprecedented organization, these early Black cryptanalysts and translators appeared to have been virtually invisible. Few former Agency employees who were interviewed and who worked at AHS during WWII had any knowledge of Blacks in professional positions; most did not even recall seeing Blacks on the campus (See: 1972).
11/15/1951 Sol Trujillo, future Hispanic/Latino CEO of US West Comm, was born.
11/15/1969 A quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful demonstration in Washington, DC, against the Vietnam War.
11/15/1969 The Amistad Research Center was incorporated and located on the campus of Tulane University, New Orleans, LA., it collected Black-American and ethnic history, culture, books and manuscripts and was one of the great resources for studying the history and culture of the nation's ethnic minorities and race relations in the US with over 10 million documents and counting.
11/15/1979 Jamaican-American born Professor (Sir) Arthur Lewis of Princeton University was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics becoming the 1st Black-American to receive the coveted prize in a category other than Peace (See: 9/29/1979, 11/17/1979 and 6/16/1991).
11/15/1988 The Palestine National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, proclaimed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state at the close of a 4-day conference in Algiers.
11/15/1989 US President George Bush renamed the Houston, TX federal building after Black-American Congressman George ?“Mickey?” Leland (D-TX, 1979-89), who died in an airplane crash (8/7/1989) while surveying the affects of famine in Ethiopia.
11/15/1990 Discrimination on the basis of race and gender was banned by the US Golf Association.
11/15/1997 In response to a public outcry, several 19th century slavery documents, scheduled to be auctioned to the highest bidder during the week at Christie?’s in NYC were withdrawn from the sale and were donated to a museum or historical society. The 8 documents, grouped in 3 lots in the Christie?’s catalog, included posters announcing a reward for runaway slaves, a slave auction poster announcing ?“Chancery Sale of 8 Likely Negroes?” and other papers, including a receipt for a ?“mulatto boy named Joe.?” They were part of a larger collection of Civil War-era autographs and manuscripts being sold by Christie?’s.
11/15/1998 Kwame Ture aka: Stokely Carmichael, former civil rights activist, head of SNCC and father of the ?“Black Power Movement,?”died in Guinea on his 57 birthday (b: 11/15/1941, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad).
11/15/2001 Black Republican Family Court Judge Michael A. Battle, 45, was nominated by US President Bush to become US Attorney for Western New York. If confirmed, Battle, whose office would be based in Buffalo, will become the 1st Black Federal Prosecutor in the state outside the New York City area.
11/15/2001 Fifty-four years after the discovery of the 1st of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a sensation in 20th-century archaeology, all the ancient texts had finally been published, or nearly so. The announcement of the virtual completion of the publication project ?— involving some 900 scrolls and commentaries in 38 volumes, 2 of them in the final stages of preparation, was to be made at the NY Public Library by Dr. Emanuel Tov, a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem who had been the project's Editor in Chief since 1990. The scrolls, some dating from 250 B.C. while others were as recent as A.D. 70, were found between 1947 and 1956 in caves at Qumran, 9 miles south of Jericho on the western shore of the Dead Sea in what is now the West Bank. They revealed little to shake the foundations of either Judaism or Christianity, as once was thought possible. Although there was no mention of Jesus or John the Baptist, or anything resembling the religious movement described in the New Testament (what was that, chopped liver?). Scholars considered the scrolls a treasure of Jewish history and religion. They provided insights into what the Hebrew Bible looked like more than 2,000 years ago and reflect the thinking of Jews during the turbulent period that produced the beginnings of rabbinic Judaism. ?“The scrolls are even more valuable than we thought 50 years ago,?” Dr. Tov said. ?“They give us a literature of ancient Israel.?” One of the scrolls, containing a Hebrew song of thanksgiving, was to be dedicated to NYC in tribute to its resilience in the face of the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
11/15/2001(?) The global pharmaceutical firm, Pfizer, filed papers at a US court in New York praying that the court dismiss a law suit filed against it by Nigerians claiming injury from an unethical drug test conducted by the drug company in Kano in 1996. In papers filed by its attorneys, Pfizer, demanded that the suit be dismissed because all the activities and injuries complained about occurred in Nigeria and not in New York, where the case had been instituted. The defendants argued that Nigeria was the right place to adjudicate the case because it raised public policy issues, concerning access by Nigerian citizens to potentially life-saving medicines (See:8/ 29/2001).
11/15/2002 Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao, a 59-year-old hydrologist, in a ceremony rich with Communist pageantry, known for his powerful memory and colorless personality, was appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party. But President Jiang Zemin, 76, who formally stepped down as party chief after 13 years in power, was expected to continue to exert influence in retirement. Hu was relatively young for China's senior-most office. He would complete his assumption of leadership in 3/2003 during a session of the National People's Congress, or Parliament, when Jiang was to resign as President and make way for Hu to succeed him in that job as well. However, the party announced that Jiang was reelected Chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, a powerful platform from which he could continue to wield influence.
11/15/2002 The Argentine government defaulted on all but a fraction of an $805 million payment due yesterday to the World Bank, deepening the country's rift with the international financial establishment and stirring concern about a new deterioration in relations between the US and Latin America. Argentina had already severely damaged its creditworthiness, having defaulted early this year on about $100 billion owed to commercial banks, bondholders and other private creditors. But countries that fail to pay official multilateral institutions such as the World Bank risk becoming full-fledged international financial pariahs; the list consisted mostly of ?“failed states,?” such as Somalia and left-wing governments that deliberately sought to thumb their noses at global capitalism, such as Peru in the late1980s. But despite the conciliatory remarks from both sides, privately, some officials in Washington also worried that if Argentina became more estranged from the IMF, the danger would increase that popular sentiment throughout Latin America would turn increasingly against the fund, its overseers in the US government and the system of global capitalism that they champion. ?“This is crucial for the whole region,?” one senior policymaker said, noting that Brazil's left-wing President-elect, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, may find it more difficult to hew to IMF-backed policies if neighboring Argentina rejected them.
11/15/2002 The Central Council of Jews in Germany was given the same legal standing as the country's predominant Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches by an agreement that was announced by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The accord would recognize the importance of Jewish life in Germany and triple the council's annual allocation of government funds to $3 million, reflecting the surge in the Jewish community from 30,000 to 100,000 over the last decade. The agreement would establish the 1st legal partnership between the Jewish community and the German government since WW II, in the spirit of similar pacts with the churches under which the state financed the costs of some institutions, such as schools.
11/15/2002 Ivory Coast rebels rejected a draft peace plan seeking to end a nearly 2-month-old uprising that had split the country in 2, crippled its economy, claimed hundreds of lives, raised fears of regional destabilization were preparing a counterproposal, Sidiki Konate a rebel spokesman said. The setback followed 2 weeks of talks meant to end a conflict. ?“We read the proposals. They are not good for us,?” Konate said after meeting Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema, who was hosting the talks in Togo's capitol, Lome. The rebels would continue negotiating, Konate said.
11/15/2002 The families of 33 people who were aboard a Japanese fishing trawler sunk by a US submarine off Hawaii agreed to a reported $13 million compensation package from the US Navy.
11/15/2003 During testimony on the ?“State of the Black/African American Male?” hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus, Harry C. Alford, President/CEO, of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc. (NBCC) listed opportunities to overcome barriers of employment within Black communities. The number one opportunity caught everyone's attention. He stated that Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. (NYSE:PPD) was offering an immense opportunity in terms of income and a badly needed service. Congressman Danny Davis noted in his introductory remarks that ?“Black males are the first arrested and the last to get a lawyer.?” Alford noted that Pre-Paid Legal Services offered good legal service on demand for those enrolled in the program. One agreed reason for the high concentration of Blacks in prison and in legal trouble per se was the lack to good legal access. A good example of that success was Darnell Self. Darnell, located in MD., who had built a network of Pre-Paid Legal Services representatives numbering over 58,000 (98% Black) throughout the nation. The NBCC noted that some of the best performers within the Pre-Paid Legal Services were persons who had been incarcerated themselves and had decided to change their lives around. There were retirees, college students, housewives and representation from just about all other categories. The NBCC encouraged their network of 100,000 business owners to look at that program as another tool for good legal service and as an opportunity for additional income.
11/16/1873 Blacks won 3 state offices in the Mississippi election: Alexander K. Davis, Lieutenant Governor; James Hill, Secretary of State; T.W. Cardozo, Superintendent of Education and also won 55 of the 115 seats in the House 11/16/1840. Nancy Gardner (Prince)left America for Jamaica where she will later write about her trips from Jamaica to Russia where her husband, Nero Prince, was a Black-American member of the Russian royal court. and 9 out of 37 seats in the Senate, 42% of the total number.
11/16/1930 Chinua Achebe, who will become the internationally acclaimed author of the novel "Things Fall Apart," among others, was born in Ogidi, Nigeria.
11/16/1931 Charismatic religious leader Father Divine, who had established centers where people lived communally, sharing expenses and thus were able to survive the economic disaster of the Great Depression, was arrested on trumped-up charges in Sayville, Long Island and became nationally known when the case?’s presiding judge died unexpectedly of a heart attack.
11/16/1950 The Union of South Africa Government offered the services of the South African Air Force?’s (SAAF) 2nd Squadron to the UN forces. The offer was gratefully accepted, and 49 officers and 157 other ranks of 2nd Sqn, all (White) volunteers. The 2nd Sqn had a long and distinguished record of service in Korea flying F-51D Mustangs and later F-86F Sabres. Their role was mainly flying ground attack and interdiction missions as one of the squadrons making up the USAF's 18th Fighter Bomber Wing. During the Korean conflict the squadron flew a grand total of 12,067 sorties for a loss of 34 pilots and two other ranks. Aircraft losses amounted to 74 out of 97 Mustangs and 4 out of 22 Sabres. Casualties included 20 KIA and 16 WIA (See: 7/24/1950).
11/16/1979 Lydia Gueiler Tejada (1926-), the caretaker President of Bolivia (11/17/1979 to 7/18/1980), during a chaotic period in Bolivian politics, plenty of military coups and attempts to consolidate the civilian democracy. A member of the Revolutionary Party of the Nationalist Left (PRIN), she was the Speaker of the National Congress and was elected to head the country up to fresh elections slated to 1980. But another plot interrupted the transition and Gueiler, like Argentina's Isabel Per?³n, 3 years before, was deposed.
11/16/1989 Lt. Commander Evelyn Fields became the 1st Black woman to command a US Navy ship.
11/16/1989 South African?’s beaches were opened to all races after President F.W. de Klerk announced the scrapping of the Separate Amenities Act.
11/16/1996 A 2-year old race discrimination class action suit for $176.9 million dollars was agreed upon and settled, without admitting guilt, by Texaco Inc.
11/16/1997 Hokkaido Takushoku, Japan?’s 10th largest bank, folded/failed due to bad loans.
11/16/1997 China?’s most prominent pro-democracy campaigner, Wei Jingsheng, arrived in the US after being released on a medical parole after nearly 18 years in prison.
11/16/1999 Hispanic Joe Baca (D-CA.), Vietnam vet and State Assemblyman, was elected to the US Congress in a special election to fill a vacancy caused by the death of George E. Brown.
11/16/2000 By agreeing to a cease-fire with the generals who ran Myanmar, formerly Burma, the Pao, an ethnic minority of about 400,000 people in a country of 50 million, won themselves civil rights and economic opportunities, all but unimaginable to most Burmese. In the last decade, at least 15 armed ethnic minorities in the country were willing to end decades of bloodshed and do business with the generals.
11/16/2000 The Coca-Cola Company agreed to pay more than $156 million to resolve a federal lawsuit brought by Black employees in 4/99 for overt and convert racial discrimination (See: 4/99).
11/16/2001 Recognizing the relevance of the Lakota mourning tradition to the nation?’s current situation (9?11), Sioux and Cheyenne leaders brought the Washigila, ?“Wiping the Tears?” ceremony to the National Museum of the American Indian?’s (NMAI) George Gustav Haye Center in NYC, located only a few blocks from ground zero. The Center drew approximately 200 participants of all races and ages to the program. Sitting cross-legged in the museum?’s oval shaped rotunda, the multi-ethnic crowd reflected and prayed with Native America leaders who burned sage, made invocations and sang songs in Lakota and Cheyenne (See: 6/26/2000 and 12/2000).
11/16/2001 Authorities from the Bahamas detained 127 Haitians,106 men and 21 women, after their crammed wooden sailboat drifted within miles of the sprawling island chain. The 40-foot boat was found west of Exuma Cays, one of 700 islands in the Bahamian archipelago. It was unclear whether the Haitians were heading to the Bahamas or to the US. This year, Bahamian authorities have repatriated more than 6,000 Haitians, compared to 4,879 last year. Despite the dangers, thousands of Haitians take to the seas every year to try to reach Florida or the Bahamas. The Haitians were turned over to immigration officials in Nassau and were detained for processing. Most Haitians who arrived in the Bahamas were sent back to their impoverished country. There were currently 163 Haitians in detention in the Bahamas.
11/16/2001 Agbani Darego, 18, of Nigeria was named Miss World in Sun City, South Africa. She wasn't the 1st African to wear the Miss World crown, but she was the 1st Black African, the continent's 3 previous winners included 2 White South Africans and 1 Egyptian. Though a woman from Botswana, Mpula Kwelagobe, had won Miss Universe in 1999, the chances of an African being crowned Miss World were pretty slim, according to oddsmakers. The contest?’s official bookmaker rated her a longshot at 66-1.
11/16/2002 Mali launched an evacuation for 10,000 of its citizens in the Ivory Coast, trying to rescue its people from the growing anti-immigrant attacks in that country torn by a bloody 2-month rebellion. The evacuation by bus convoy occurred after the burning of shanty-towns that were home to 6 million guest workers from Mali and Burkina Faso.. Dozens of Malians immigrants allegedly were killed in 1 western Ivorian town.
11/17/1801 Amos Fortune, composed the inscription for his tombstone: ?“Born free in Africa, a slave in America, he purchased liberty, professed christianity, lived reputably and died hopefully,?” died in Jaffrey, NH, leaving his estate to the town and the local church, creating funds that are still in use.
11/17/1869 The Suez Canal opened in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
11/17/1904 William Henry Hastie, who in 1937 will be the 1st Black-American named a federal judge, 0n 5/7/1946 will become the 1st Black Governor on the Virgin Islands and on10/5/1949 will be nominated on 10/5/1949 for the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals by President Truman, was born in Knoxville, TN (d: 4/14/1976 at age 71, E. Norriton, PA.)
11/17/1978 Two FBI agents testified before the House Select Committee on Assassinations to the fact that the bureau's long-term surveillance and numerous attempts to discredit Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were based solely on the late Director J. Edgar Hoover's "hatred of the civil rights leader" and not on the civil rights leader's alleged communist influences or linkages with radical groups.
11/17/1979 Jamaican-born Arthur Lewis, along with Theodore Schultz, were named the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Economics for "pioneering research into economic development...with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries." (See: 12/10/1979).
11/17/1979 Iran?’s Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 Black- and female-American hostages held at the US Embassy in Tehran.
11/17/1980 Howard University?’s WHMM-TV became the 1st Black owned public broadcasting TV station.
11/17/1997 Japan?’s Hokkaido Takushoku Bank collapsed under a pile of bad loans.
11/17/1997 The Bank of Korea abandoned its efforts to support/prop up the value of the won, allowing it to fall below 1000 against the dollar, a record low.
11/17/1997 Six militants opened fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt, killing 62 people, most of them foreign tourists. The attackers were killed by police.
11/17/1998 Israel?’s Parliament overwhelmingly approved the Wye River land-for-peace Accord with the Palestinians.
11/17/2000 Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong greeted US President Clinton a day after his arrival in Hanoi on 11/16/2000.
11/17/2000 It was announced that the NAACP will present to US Attorney General Janet Reno on Monday, 11/20/2000, testimony from 20 voters - largely Black, Jews and Haitians - who attended a Miami public hearing last week to complain of civil rights violations on Election Day (11/7/2000). Some told of receiving absentee ballots that were already completed; others said they were asked to produce multiple pieces of identification or documents not sought from White voters.
11/17/2002 So many people lived illegally in Colorado that, if brought together, they could form the state's 5th-largest city, bigger than Boulder or Fort Collins. Lured by a robust economy, as many as 125,000 undocumented immigrants, primarily Hispanic, now called Colorado home. Many of their children attended Colorado public schools. They were among the mass of new residents, legal and otherwise, whose arrival in the past decade made up the largest wave of immigration since the influx that built this nation. Thirty-one million immigrants, an estimated 8.5 million of them illegal, now lived in the US. That's more than a 10th of the population, the highest percentage of immigrants since 1930. The surge caught America unaware and gave rise to a sometimes rancorous national debate.
11/17/2002 Nora Lee Thomas and husband Wilford Thomas, 76, opened the Kapre Lounge and Fried Chicken in the 1950s and for 45 years it was considered a pillar among Black-owned businesses in the Five Points area of Denver, CO. But a dispute over operation of the Five Points institution had divided the couple and their family. Once considered the source of Denver's best fried chicken, where patrons waited in line for an hour, the Kapre began to slip. The dysfunction threatened to further diminish the historic hub of Black enterprise in Denver. Since Five Points' heyday, dozens of Black-owned businesses there had fallen into disrepair, gone out of business or slipped out of family hands. A few blocks away on Welton, ?“The Point,?” a $14 million, ?“Urban Removal Project?” of mixed-use loft project, raised where 5 streets once converged, giving the neighborhood its name. Also on Welton, construction neared completion for a new ?“African-American?” research library. Money again flowed, government grants and currency from new affluent residents, to Five Points businesses, including rival restaurants selling fried chicken and Jamaican jerk chicken. But some mourn the past that the Kapre represented.
11/17/2002 US Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO), with several hundred of his fellow Northern Cheyenne, would bury some of Black Horse?’s remains, who was his great-grandfather, in a graveyard in Lame Deer, MT., thanks in large part to a law he introduced 12 years ago, the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. When Campbell, then a member of the US House, pressed for legislation to force the government to return the remains of any Indians it was holding to the Indians' descendants, he never imagined that his family would benefit. Without Black Horse's grit and determination, Campbell said he doubted the Cheyenne could have survived in Oklahoma and returned to southeastern Montana, where their reservation was now located. Campbell had found records showing that Black Horse was incarcerated in Darlington, Okla., in 1875 with a band of Southern Cheyenne. His crime, was nothing ?“other than wanting to be free.?” Black Horse escaped and made his way north to join Little Wolf and Dull Knife, leaders of the Cheyenne. On 6/25/1876, he joined them in the famous battle at Little Big Horn. Within a year Black Horse was captured and sent back to Oklahoma. In the summer of 1878 he and others escaped again.
11/17/2002 Am unnamed Black family in Longville, LA. had a crossed burned on their front yard on 9/1/ 2002. A federal indictment charged 5 members of the Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan with the offense. The family was home during the incident. The house was not damaged.
11/17/2003 South African President Thabo Mbeki began a 3-day state visit to France that included an address before the parliament, a 1st for a leader from sub-Saharan Africa. The distinction underscored the importance France placed on South Africa as a vital player in the region and Francess drive to include the African continent in a globalized world. Mbeki was to meet with President Jacques Chirac for talks and dinner after laying a wreath at the Arc de Triomphe, the site of France's tomb of the unknown soldier. Earlier this month, Chirac inaugurated an international conference in Paris to promote African development, saying that globalization will not work unless Africa was included.
11/17/2003 Kathleen Blanco, moving past the victory that made her Louisiana's 1st female Governor, had begun sketching out her plans for health care, education and economic development. The new Governor, who will be inaugurated 1/12/2004, also said she had an emergency preparedness briefing. Blanco, the state's Democratic Lieutenant Governor, defeated conservative Indian-American Bobby Jindal, 32, with 52% of the vote in a runoff election that dashed the Republican Party's hopes for a sweep of the Deep South. Republicans had hoped Jindal would give them control of all the governorships in Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina for the 1st time since Reconstruction. The win put the Louisiana governorship back in the Democratic column for the 1st time since Gov. Mike Foster was elected 8 years ago. Jindal, who would have been the 1st nonwhite governor in Louisiana since Reconstruction, said he had no regrets about how he and his advisers ran the campaign.
11/17/2003 China granted 300,000 US dollars to the African Union (AU) in support of the AU Peace Fund. Ai Ping, Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, said the grant was in line with the Chinese government?’s decision to offer some financial assistance to the Union. Chairperson of the AU Commission Alpha Omar Konare expressed appreciation to the Chinese government for a gesture which demonstrated the strong partnership and mutual friendship existing between China and Africa. Konare reassured the Union's commitment towards enhancing the existing strategic relationship and partnership. He also appealed to the Chinese government to consider working closely with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which he said was one of the most important programs of the AU. Also on the same day, Norway signed an agreement with the AU for a grant totaling about 424,000 dollars as Norway?’s additional contribution to the fund.
11/17/2003 Equatorial Guinea?’s President Teodoro Obiang had his opponents imprisoned and tortured, had his presidential predecessor executed by firing squad, helped himself to the state treasury at will. State radio recently declared him ?“like God.'?” Obiang might seem an unlikely candidate for warmer relations with the US, except for one thing - his tiny West African country had a tremendous amount of oil. With the US looking increasingly for alternatives to oil from the Middle East, West Africa and dictators like Obiang were not looking so bad. To the dismay of human rights activists, Washington reopened its embassy on the tropical country's island capitol of Malabo last month after an 8-year closure. These days, Obiang speaks of his nation becoming ``the Kuwait of Africa,'' and he is not far off the mark. West Africa?’s Gulf of Guinea already supplied the US with 15% of its oil imports and analysts said that share could grow to 25% by 2015. Over the last 8 years, the former Spanish colony had seen more than US$3 billion in direct investment from US businesses, more than any other country in sub-Saharan Africa except Nigeria and Angola, 2 other resource-rich nations, said the Heritage Foundation, a US think tank. Obiang kept state oil proceeds a secret and critics accused him and other top officials of funneling hundreds of millions of dollars of oil money into private accounts in foreign banks. American diplomats said the embassy was reopened partly to provide consular services to the growing community of 3,000-5,000 American oil workers. They also said it was better to try to change governmental behavior with direct contacts.
11/18/1493 Taino Indians who inhabited the Island of Puerto Rico, called it Boriken or Borinquen which means ?“the great land of the valiant and noble lord.?” The island was populated by approximately 50,000 inhabitants and they owned 100% of the Island.
11/18/1775(?) Black soldiers who had enlisted in what became known as British Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, took part in a skirmish with the VA. Colonial Militia at Kemp's Landing, on the Elizabeth River. The engagement ended with the capture of the Militia's 2 commanding Colonels and the flight of their men, marked the beginning of open conflict in Virginia (See: 11/7/1775, 12/1/1775, 12/9/1775 and 12/31/1777).
11/18/1787(?) Isabelle Van Wagener (some references use the name Isabelle Baumfree) aka: Sojourner Truth, who will walk away from her last owner 1 year prior to being freed by a 1827 New York law, which proclaimed that all slaves 28 years of age and over were to be freed. Among her most memorable appearances as a abolitionist and orator, will be at an 1851 Women's Rights Conference in Akron, OH., where in her famous "Ain't I a woman?" speech she forcefully attacks the hypocrisies of organized religion, White privilege and everything in between, was born a slave on the plantation of Johannes Hardenbergh in Ulster, County, NY (d: 11/26/1883 at age 96(?)).
11/18/1803 Blacks and Mulattoes led by Dessalines and Petion defeated Napoleon Bonaparte?’s army and won their war for independence at the Battle of Vertieres.
11/18/1957 Julius Caesar Watts, Jr. aka: J.C. Watts, future Black-American Republican US Representative from Oklahoma, was born in Eufaula, OK. (See: 2/4/1996 and 2/26/2001).
11/18/1964 Martin Luther King was described as a "most notorious liar" by the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, indicative of the agency head's dislike of the civil rights leader.
11/18/1977 The 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL., that killed 4 Black-American teenage girls, was solved when a former KKK member Robert Edward Chambliss was convicted of 1st degree murder in connection with the incident.
11/18/1978 More than 900 people, mainly Blacks, died in Jonestown, Guyana, after People Temple cult leader Jim Jones (White) urged them to kill themselves by drinking cyanide-laced grape punch, most people compiled, though some were shot to death or forcibly poisoned, Jones died of a bullet wound to the head; whether it was self-inflicted was unknown.
11/18/1980 Wally "Famous" Amos' signature Panama hat and embroidered shirt were donated to the National Museum of American History's Business Americana collection, the 1st memorabilia added to the collection by an Black-American entrepreneur that recognized the achievements of Amos, who built his company from a mom-and-pop enterprise to a $250 million cookie manufacturing business.
11/18/1997 Just before midnight, Oumar Dia (pronounced Jah), 38, a refugee from Mauritania who spoke little English, a natural target for skinheads was shoot and killed after being confronted by 2 White men in Denver, CO. The Colorado community of West African refugees were pulling together to cope with their grief and to make arrangements to return Dia?’s body to Senegal, where he once lived, because he was a political refugee , his body could not be sent to Mauritania, where his family still lived.
11/18/2001 Sikhs in the US and elsewhere faced significant challenges since 9/11/2001, because of their beards, their turbans and for many their dark brown skin, thus they became targets in the backlash which followed that incident. And for those that remained suspicious of them, they should have known how the federal government felt about Sikhs: Akal Security, one of many Sikh-owned businesses, provided security for government installations around the country, including NASA and FAA facilities, military bases and more than 300 federal courthouses, including Denver?’s (See: 1500 AD).
11/18/2002 For the 1st time an exhibition in Cologne attempted to piece together the story of the Nazi persecution of Blacks living in Germany when Hitler came to power in 1933. The lot of Black people under the Nazis in comparison of others, however, had received little attention in the past. The Nazi Documentation Center in Cologne was showing the 1st exhibition on the subject. Called ?“Distinguishing Feature: Negro?” ?– Blacks in National Socialist Times?’, the exhibition showed Germany in the 1930s and 1940s caught in the grip of jazz fever. The exhibition meanwhile had also attracted criticism from groups that represented Blacks in Germany. They said that it objectified Blacks. The Black People in Germany Initiative (ISD) and the organization Black Women in Germany (ADEFRA), believed that the exhibition was another example of how German society dealt with and viewed Black people as objects. The groups welcomed bringing the history of Germany?’s Black population to the public but were opposed to the exhibition's name. ?“At the cost of Black people, a historical term is updated according to long-standing white-colonial thought patterns,?” said a spokeswoman for the ISD in a statement. ?“Black survivors and the murdered victims of the Holocaust are hardly receiving a dignified monument.?” The exhibition was due to run until 2/23/2003.
11/18/2002 Cuba agreed to buy food from Black American farmers under a US law that allowed direct sales of farm products to the island, the NAACP said. ?“This is a historic announcement and one that I personally find very heartening,?” said NAACP President Kweisi Mfume. ?“President Fidel Castro promised to establish trade links with Black farmers and it appears he has kept his word.?” Mfume and John Boyd, President of the National Black Farmers Association, announced the agreement after meeting with the Director of Cuba's food import company. Mfume said the NAACP was also exploring the possibility of establishing a branch in Cuba.
11/18/2002 New York-based Ed Bradley, 61, a 60 Minutes reporter who had a few high-profile assignments with Colorado connections: the Columbine school shootings and the Oklahoma City bombing trial. Bradley was named the recipient of the Denver Press Club's 9th annual Damon Runyon Award, the club announced. Bradley's Columbine story for 60 Minutes II raised questions about law enforcement response to the shootings. Bradley also had the only television interview with convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, whose federal trial was in Denver. McVeigh was later executed. The 22-year correspondent for 60 Minutes was to speak in Denver at a 3/14/02 award banquet.
11/18/2002 The battle for UniStar was a tense exercise in wielding power in one of the most important arenas in China, the multibillion-dollar world of joint Chinese-foreign business. Its unfolding was emblematic of the often troubled interactions between Western firms, which seek the Holy Grail of China's 1.3 billion consumers and Chinese businesses, which seek to maximize profits in a country where regulations and law were not always the last word. The story of this fight, part of a series of occasional articles about power in the People's Republic of China, focused on what remained the most powerful tool in China: relationships. It was that murky combination, relationships, law and money, that determined who won in China. Foreign investment had allowed China's ruling elite to tap into new sources of power, not from the barrel of a gun, as Mao Zedong saw things, but from the prospectus of an IPO. While their fathers fought for influence during the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party, the sons of President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and legislative chief Li Peng had already voted for the future. Jiang Mianheng was a telecom and real estate mogul in Shanghai. Levin Zhu was an executive at a Western-funded investment bank. Li Xiaopeng was the CEO of Huaneng Power International Inc., listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
11/18/2002 This year, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC would get a much-needed splash of color. Bill Cosby's award-winning animated character Little Bill, will be the 1st Black giant character helium balloon to float along the parade route in the event's 76-year history. Mr. Cosby told NBC's ?“Today?” host Katie Couric that he and Nickelodeon, the network which aired the Little Bill animated series, shared the costs of the giant balloon. Of the fact that no other Black characters had floated along the 2.5-mile legendary parade route, Cosby said that he was approached about having a Fat Albert giant character float years ago when the '70s cartoon was popular, but didn't pay for the character to be built.
11/18/2002 Bereft of oil or valuable resources, the impoverished nation of Djibouti had long been a desirable base for Western militaries. The main goal that time was to put American forces in position to strike cells of Al Qaeda in Yemen or East Africa. But the Pentagon had also begun to use Djibouti to train its forces in desert warfare skills that could be applied in Washington's campaign against terrorist. Put simply, what Djibouti offered was location. It was close to Yemen and near the Bal el Mandeb Strait, a critical choke-point where the Red Sea met the Gulf of Aden. The sea lanes near Djibouti were particularly crucial since they were used for commercial shipping and to transport American war mat?©riel to the Persian Gulf. Djibouti had other advantages for the American military as well, including a serviceable airport and harbor. The country was accustomed to the presence of Western military forces and was politically stable. France, which had colonized Djibouti (pronounced ji-BOOT-e) before it became independent in 1977, still maintained a force of 2,800 strong here. Djibouti, in fact, was France's largest foreign military base.
11/18/2003 Trade negotiators meeting in Miami, FL. worked on a draft for the world?’s largest free trade region, with several Caribbean nations, Chile, Mexico and Canada advocating a compromise that would skirt the thorny issue of agriculture. The compromise, obtained from a participating delegation, attempted to combine several competing ideas by outlining a 2-tiered proposal for a Free Trade Area of the Americas. It included a universal agreement that all countries would have to sign, but allowed nations to opt out of a 2nd level of negotiations on controversial issues like investment. On the topic of agricultural subsidies, the proposal called for waiting for and incorporating a decision by the 146-member World Trade Organization, something the US had been seeking. WTO talks in 9/2003 aimed at reducing agricultural subsidies collapsed, but ministers were trying to meet a 12/15/03 deadline to get negotiations back on track. Brazil and the US earlier proposed a more general draft that would allow countries to pick and choose among the more controversial issues being negotiated, but it didn?’t spell out what those issues were or how they would be negotiated.
11/18/2003 Of the 39 countries which had recently signed a declaration outlawing illegal logging 31 came from Africa, an indication of how seriously the problem of illegal logging was viewed around the continent. The declaration came at the Africa Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (AFLEG) conference held in Yaounde, Cameroon, last month, which was co-hosted by the Cameroonian government and World Bank. The AFLEG conference followed from a similar initiate in East Asia, where there had also been major concern about the expansion in the illegal timber industry. Environmental pressure groups had lobbied hard for stronger international campaigns against illegal logging, while urging that local organisations, like Liberia's Save my Future Foundation (SAMFU), were actively involved in consultations. According to research done by the Global Forest Watch Initiative, until recently half of the active logging licenses in Cameroon were awarded illegally. Illegal logging on public lands worldwide was estimated to cause annual losses in revenues and assets in excess of US $10 billion. Some of the heaviest losses were in Africa. According to World Bank estimates, annual losses in Cameroon were around $5.3 million, in Congo-Brazzaville $4.2 million, in Gabon, $10.1 million and in Ghana a catastrophic $37.5 million per year. More than 150 delegates, from Africa, North America, China and other regions attended the Yaounde meeting. Forests covered more than one-quarter of the earth's land surface. They totaled 3.3 billion hectares, split about evenly between developing and industrialized countries and were critical for the quality of the global environment. While deforestation was mainly concentrated in tropical regions, illegal timber operations in Russia, Canada and other countries had also been scrutinized by environmentalists.
11/18/2003 President Jean-Bertrand Aristide urged Haitians to overcome economic bondage as they marked the bicentennial of a decisive victory over Napoleon's troops that led to the world?’s 1st successful slave rebellion, which led to the creation of the world?’s 1st Black Republic. Aristide, whose speech was peppered with Creole proverbs and punctuated by shouts of ?“Freedom or Death!,?” said Haitians needed to fight again as they once did to overcome ?“the conspiracy?” of rich nations over poor ones. ?“After 200 years of economic violence, the traces of slavery are still here,?”Aristide told more than 10,000 people waving flags and dancing to thumping ?“racine,?” or roots music. Diplomats from the Organization of American States, Taiwan and the Vatican joined Haitians from all over the country who crowded Cap-Haitien to celebrate and hear from the embattled Aristide, who's struggling to liberate the nation of 8 million from worsening poverty and despair while his opponents called for his downfall. Absent were ambassadors from France, the US and the European Union, who stayed away to protest the government's failure to stop Aristide partisans from blocking a demonstration in the capitol by civic groups demanding government reforms. Haiti was a shell of what it was 2 centuries ago when its rich alluvial plains and slave labor made it the wealthiest colony in the New World. That prosperity impelled Napoleon Bonaparte to order 15,000 troops to oust Toussaint Louverture, a former slave who rallied the Blacks. The French eventually captured Louverture and imprisoned him in a bleak mountain cell on the French-Swiss border, where he died. Shortly afterward, however, French troops, weakened by yellow fever, surrendered to Haitian forces. Vertieres had since become a celebrated victory of Black over White and poor over privileged. Aristide, a former slum priest, came to power urging the poor to overthrow the US-backed Duvalier family dictatorship. Aistide was ousted in a coup within months of being elected but was returned power by a US invasion in 1994. It was the 3rd invasion by the US since Haiti's independence, which Washington refused to recognize for decades while slavery continued in the US South.
11/19/1493 Taino or Arawak Indians discovered Columbus landing on their island and greeted him. However, they made a big mistake when they showed him gold nuggets in the rivers and told him to take all he wanted.
11/19/1917 Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi, future member of the Congress Party, 3rd woman head of a government and 1st female Prime Minster of India who will serve 4 terms over 15 years (1966-77 and 1980-84), was born the only child to Kamla and Jawaharlal Nehru (d: 10/31/1984 assassinated while PM by 2 Sikh security guards at age 66).
11/19/1926 Jeane Kirkpatrick, future US United Nations Ambassador, was born.
11/19/1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the 1st Arab leader to visit Israel.
11/19/1977 In a case involving the murder/execution of 4 Black girls, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins, in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, Robert E. Chambliss, 73, who had just been convicted of 1st degree murder in the death of Denise McNair only, one of the 4 victims of the blast and as they, police, had done several times before, led him off to jail. But this time, he apparently was going to jail for the rest of his life (See: 9/15/1963 and 5/1/2001).
11/19/1997 Kalpana Chawla, PhD., became the 1st Asian-American woman in space on her first mission as a Mission Specialist on STS-87, Columbia, and traveled 6.5 million miles in 252 orbits of the Earth and logged 376 hours and 34 minutes in space, returning 12//5/1997.
11/19/2001 Muslim diplomats representing 50 Muslim nations were hosted by US President Bush for a traditional Iftar dinner in the White House State Dining Room. The Iftar dinner was traditionally held at the end of each day's sunrise-to-sunset fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. White House aides said it was the 1st time an Iftar meal had been held at the White House. President Clinton held 3 Eid-al-Fitr dinners to celebrate the traditional 3-day holiday that marked the end of Ramadan. And for the 1st time, the US Postal Service issued a stamp with Eid Mobarak or Happy Eid written on it in Arabic.
11/19/2002 The dramatic arrest of Major Santiago Martin Rivas who was the leader of the Grupo Colina death squad, may shed light on former President Alberto Fujimori's possible involvement in human rights crimes. Peru captured the head of an army death squad that killed 25 people in 2 of Peru's most notorious massacres in the early 1990s. The unit was convicted of killing 15 people at a party in the Barrios Altos district of Lima in 1991 and 9 students and their professor at La Cantuta university in 1992. Rivas was arrested at his Lima home. Fujimori, who ruled Peru from 1990 to 2000, was charged with responsibility for the murders. The former President, who was in exile in Japan, had denied the charge.
11/19/2002 Hundreds of workers, almost all of them migrants from Mexico, who made the garlands and wreaths and cut Christmas trees in southwestern Virginia said that many companies not only lacked Christmas generosity but also cheated them out of wages. Federal and state officials backed the migrants' accusations in a series of lawsuits and orders for back pay in a region that had become the nation's garland capitol. Ines Toledo said one garland maker paid her just $265 for an 80-hour week, amounting to $3.31 an hour, well below the $5.15-an-hour federal minimum wage. Among those sued by the federal government was the area's biggest Christmas tree producer, Sexton Christmas Tree Farms, which the government said did not pay overtime. In its legal reply, the company acknowledged that it had not paid overtime since 1996 but asserted that the employees were not forestry workers, who were covered by federal overtime laws, but rather agricultural workers, who were exempt from such laws. Felix Acosta, a farm and forest industry specialist with the Virginia Employment Commission said the garland industry had exploded there because the region's high hills were ideal for white pine, whose branches had an unusual ability to stay green long after being cut. ?“This started more than 20 years ago as a mom-and-pop thing, making a few here and there,?” he said. ?“Now it's grown into a $74 million industry.?” In recent years, federal officials had stepped up investigations of the industry, issuing back-pay orders to all 6 Christmas tree and garland operators that they investigated in Virginia this year and last. In those investigations, the Department of Labor had ordered more than $55,000 in back pay in total for more than 300 workers for minimum wage and overtime violations.
11/20/1695 The Brazilian slave regime of Zumbi or Zambi who headed The Republic of Palmares ended when he was captured, killed, mutilated and beheaded by the Portugese. This date currently is a national holiday in Brazil.
11/20/1849 Amanda America Dickson, would become the south?’s richest slave heiress after her father let her inherit the Dickson estate by making her the administratrix of his will in order to protect her from his (and her) White relatives. The family sued, the case would become famous. The Hancock County Superior Court would rule in her favor and their decision would be upheld by the GA. Supreme Court. Amanda would move to the wealthiest section of Augusta, live the live of a wealthy woman and marry twice, was born in Hancock County, GA. to a 12 year old ravaged slave named Julia who was defiled by David Dickson, an extremely wealthy merchant, planter and advocate of scientific agriculture (d: 7/11/1893 at age 44). Ironically, her productive plantation land was being considered by the state of GA. as a potential site for a toxic waste dump site.
11/20/1910 The Mexican Revolution began, led by Francisco I. Madero, and forced many Mexicans to cross the border for safety and employment. US railroad companies recruited nearly 2,000 Mexican workers every month because access to Asian workers, Chinese, had been curtailed.
11/20/1916 The Rebel-held Fort, San Francisco de Macoris, in the Dominican Republic fell to the US Marines.
11/20/1923 Garrett A. Morgan received a patent for an automatic traffic light, the device, which will revolutionize traffic control, was one of many inventions for the Paris, KY, native, which included a hair-straightening process and the gas mask.
11/20/1930 Hattie McDaniels was the 1st Black-American to win an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind.
11/20/1962 Racial discrimination in federally financed housing was ended when President John F. Kennedy issued an Executive Order barring the practice..
11/20/1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the 1st Arab leader to address Israel?’s Parliament.
11/20/1978 Brazil made the last Afro-Brazilian leader of The Republic of Palmares?’ beheadment date (11/20/1695) a National Holiday, named ?“Zumbi Day,?” now changed to ?“National Black Consciousness Day.?”
11/20/1989 USAF Colonel Frederick D. Gregory was the 1st Black-American astronaut to command a space shuttle mission as the Discovery was launched from Cape Canaveral, FL.(See: 1/16/1978 and 1985).
11/20/1995 Brazil celebrated the 300th anniversary of the death (beheadment) of Afro-Brazilian Zumbi, the last leader of The Republic of Palmares, a run-away slave stronghold.
11/20/1997 South Korea began talks with the IMF for tens of billions in emergency aid.
11/20/1999 China launched its 1st unmanned spaceship, Shenzhou, or ?“Divine Vessel?” or ?“Vessel of the Gods,?” making it the 3rd nation/country capable of carrying a person into space. The ship was in space for 21 hours and orbited the Earth 14 times before touching down in Inner Mongolia.
11/20/2000 The Peruvian Congress received President Alberto K. Fujimori's formal resignation today, in a letter from Tokyo addressed to Valentin Paniagua, the new President of the Congress, Mr. Fujimori said he was stepping down ?“to open a definite political path that will permit an orderly transition, and no less important, preserve the solidity of our economy.?”
11/20/2001 Led by former politician Saraya Parlika, Chairwoman of the 100-member General Coalition of Women, a human rights organization that had operated in secret since 1996, the plan was to march to the UN office in the center of city. Shedding their head-to-toe burqas, hundreds of women gathered in the Afghan capital to demand their rights after 5 years of stifling Taliban rule. Former teachers, doctors and civil servants chatted and laughed in the winter sunshine. They had all been sacked from their jobs by the Taliban, who banned women from working in their strict interpretation of Islamic rule. It was a faltering start, but still an important moment for the women who just 7 days before could not leave the house unaccompanied, let alone show their faces. But despite the concern to ensure all of Afghanistan's ethnic groups were fairly represented in the new government, the rights of women seemed to have been left behind. UN Special Envoy Frances Vendrell had held meetings in recent days with the exclusively male Northern Alliance and other political leaders, but not with Afghan women. Military police of the Northern Alliance, who seized control of Kabul from the Taliban a week ago, said they had been given no warning and postponed the march for a week.
11/20/2002 Working women in the District of Columbia (DC) were outperforming women in the workforce anywhere else in the US, according to a new state-by-state survey of women's economic, health and political environment. DC women earned the most money, faced the lowest gap between what they earned and what men earned, were the most likely to hold managerial and professional positions and were more likely to own a business than women anywhere else in the US, according to the report, a statistical analysis compiled by the District-based Institute for Women's Policy Research. Employed women in the District earned a median salary of $35,800, or 89.2% of what men earned (American women, on average, earned $26,900, or 72.7% of what men earned). About 48% of DC women had professional or managerial posts and about 30.9% of all the businesses in the District were owned by women. Nationwide, 32.2% of women held professional or management jobs and women own 26% of all businesses. At the same time, women in the District also had severe problems associated with poverty, including the nation's highest rates of diabetes and mortality from cancer. They were also infected with HIV and chlamydia at higher rates than women anywhere else in the US.
11/20/2002 Canadian Indians who attended church-run residential schools were on the receiving end when the Canadian government and the Anglican Church announced a pioneering agreement to divide liability for abuse claims by native Indians. The deal, reached in an effort to speed a resolution of the long-running and widening charges of abuse, capped the liability of the Anglican Church of Canada at $16 million so that it did not become insolvent. The schools were funded by the government but run by churches. New claims were pouring in at 120 - 130 a month. Most of the schools were shut down by the mid-1970s and the last closed in 1996. The Anglican Church was involved in 18% of the cases. The Roman Catholic Church, ran most of the schools, was involved in 73% of the cases, the United Church 8% and the Presbyterian Church of Canada about 1%.
11/20/2002 One of the most dramatic yet often overlooked changes in American business that had spurred incredible economic growth over the last 20 years was the unparalleled rise of women-operated entrepreneurial companies, a point recently underscored in a major new White Paper, ?“Women and the Entrepreneurial Revolution,?” issued by The Committee of 200 at its 20th Anniversary conference in New York City. ?“The numbers are compelling,?” said Connie K. Duckworth Chair of The Committee of 200. ?“While the tech sector captured most of the headlines during the last five years, we have an equally compelling story to tell: Over the last 20 years, some two-thirds of all new jobs have been with entrepreneurial firms and 40% of these businesses are owned by women. Moreover, women are starting firms at twice the rate of men - which is certain to fuel much-needed job growth.?”
11/20/2002 Tiger Woods was becoming annoyed by the calls for him to skip 4/2003 Masters because of the all-male membership at Augusta National Golf Club. ?“They're asking me to give up an opportunity no one has ever had, winning the Masters 3 years in a row,?” said Woods, who was in Japan for the Dunlop Phoenix. No one had boycotted the Masters before, he added. Woods had repeatedly said he thinks women should be allowed to join the club, but that he was an honorary member and didn't have voting rights on membership. Lee Elder became the 1st Black to play the Masters in 1975.
11/20/2002 Al Sharpton said he's been promised visas by Iraq and planned to lead a delegation to Baghdad on 12/8/02, the deadline for Saddam Hussein to produce a list of all his weapons of mass death. Sharpton said he may go to Baghdad even if the Bush administration refused to authorize his trip, thus violating the current US policy that except for journalists, American passports weren't valid for travel to Iraq without special US State Department authorization. ?“I wouldn't rule it out,?” said Sharpton, who added he was assembling a group of clergy to meet with religious leaders in Iraq.
11/20/2003 The creation of a National Museum of Black History and Culture, where visitors from around the world could learn about ?“400 years of struggle and progress,?” said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), was approved by the US Congress. The Senate, on a voice vote, agreed to fund a Black history museum as part of the Smithsonian Institution.
11/20/2003 Trade Ministers from 34 countries in the Americas, excluding only Cuba, were originally scheduled to finish their negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FATT) on 11/21/03. But after days of debate, they said they had achieved all they could in Miami. The Agreement, which the nations hoped to formalize by 1/2005, would likely change what food consumers buy in supermarkets as well as help dictate the future jobs of the hemisphere?’s workers. The declaration will be turned over to negotiators to solidify the details. Ministers hailed their final declaration as a victory, with both the Brazil and the US, which had been locked in a trade feud, saying it showed there had been progress in bringing countries together since the World Trade Organization talks collapsed 2 months ago in Cancun, Mexico. The FTAA declaration, hammered out by Deputy Ministers, called for a core agreement that all countries would sign, but allowed each nation to decide its commitment to the more controversial topics. The international aid organization Oxfam criticized the final draft as ?“blind to the needs of the poor.?” ?“The final declaration simply papers over the irreconcilable difference between narrow self-interest on the one hand and the urgent need to reduce poverty on the other,?” spokesman Phil Bloomer said.
11/20/2003 David Dacko, 76, the 1st President of the Central African Republic as an independent nation, has died, state radio said. Dacko died in neighboring Cameroon the radio reported, without stating the exact cause of death. He had been ailing for some time. Dacko led the Central African Republic from its 1960 independence from France until 1966, when he was overthrown and jailed by the notorious Cold War despot Jean-Bedel Bokassa. He was reinstated after French troops deposed Bokassa in 1979, only to be forced out of power by the country's own military in 1981. The Central African Republic was one of Africa?’s most turbulent countries, although some looked to the then current military ruler, Francois Bozize, to help bring stability. An impoverished nation of 3.7 million, it had weathered 9 coups and coup attempts since independence. Bozize himself seized power earlier that year after his rebels overran the capitol, Bangui.
11/21/1654 A free Black, Richard Johnson, was granted 550 acres in Northampton County, VA.
11/21/1784 James Armistead, who was born into slavery 24 years earlier, worked as a double agent for the Americans while supposedly employed as a servant of British General Cornwallis, was cited by French General Lafayette for his valuable service to the American forces in the Revolutionary War.
11/21/1866(?) Duse Mohamed Ali, future editor of Africa Times and Orient Review and an early Pan-Africanist, probable birth date in Alexandra, Egypt of Egyptian and Sudanese background.
11/21/1893 Granville T. Woods, inventor, received a patent for the "Electric Railway Conduit."
11/21/1898 Colorado statisticians at the State Capitol noted the since women had been granted the right to vote in Colorado in 1893, there had been a decrease in female crime and an increase in insanity among women.
11/21/1922 Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia was sworn in as the 1st woman to serve in the US Senate.
11/21/1980 Black and female victims of discrimination were paid $2 million by the LA Police Dept.
11/21/1984 TransAfrica's Randall Robinson, US DC Congressional Delegate Walter Fauntroy and US Civil Rights Commissioner Mary Frances Berry were arrested at a sit-in demonstration in front of the South African Embassy in Washington, DC. Their demonstration against apartheid will be repeated and spread to New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities, and involve such notables as Jesse Jackson, Arthur Ashe, Harry Belafonte, and Stevie Wonder. Their efforts will play a large part in the passage of the Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, which will impose economic sanctions against South Africa.
11/21/1991 The UN Security Council chose Egyptian Boutros Boutros-Ghali to be its new Secretary-General.
11/21/1996 Defeated Black Representative Gary Franks (R-CT) was called a ?“Negro Dr. Kerkorian?” bent on destroying his own race by Black Representative Bill Clay (D-MO) in a 6 page open letter circulated on Capitol Hill which described Franks as part of a conservative ?“new Negro cabal?” that has undermined efforts of Blacks to improve their communities through government programs.
11/21/1996 Blacks were more likely than Whites to die of cardiovascular disease because so many of them are born in the South, not because of their race, a study concluded. It found that when broken down by birthplace, Blacks differ far more from each other than they did from Whites. Among New Yorkers born in the Northeast, Blacks and Whites have nearly identical risks of these ills. However, Black New Yorkers who were born in the South had sharply higher risk and Black New Yorkers born in the Caribbean had a significantly lower risks. The latest study was based on NYC death records from 1988-92 and 1990 census data. Souther born Blacks were responsible for the excess mortality among Blacks probably had to do with eating habits learned early in life.
11/21/1996 Black agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) understood that a proposed settlement agreement was reached by Mr. Shafer and Mr. Schmidt on their behalf on 7/9/1996, providing for $4.7 million in individual monetary payments to 241 Black agents identified in the lawsuit and $1.2 million in attorneys fees. A final settlement was approved by the court on this date. US Treasury Department officials, at the time of the 1996 settlement, said the class-action case would provide payments of roughly $19,500 if all those eligible applied for compensation. The suit was filed in federal court in 11/1990 (See: 4/3/2002).
11/21/2001 Malaysia's king, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, 75, one of 9 traditional rulers who took turns in the figurehead role, died after failing to recover from a heart operation 2 months ago, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announced in a somber televised address. The popular Sultan was the country's 11th constitutional monarch since independence and was also Sultan of the central state of Selangor, A new Sultan of Selangor will be declared on 11/22, but Mahathir said it will be 4 weeks before the 9 Malay rulers will meet to decide who among them will be next King. Meantime, Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin of the east coast state of Terengganu will be the acting monarch. Malaysia's hereditary rulers take turns every 5 years at being King under Malaysia's unique rotating monarchy, which had mainly symbolic powers. The King was head of the country and his functions were largely ceremonial but his assent was required for every law passed by Parliament and the appointment of every cabinet member. He could also pardon convicts sentenced to death.
11/21/2002 The number of Blacks hired within the insurance, banking, security and financial services sales industries was at an all time low. In fact, last year the Jesse Jackson emphasized expanding minority access to jobs in insurance under his Wall Street Project, a program that encouraged banks and investment firms to hire more minorities. Jackson said the lack of Black financial services professionals was not so much linked to race but ignorance about opportunities available in the industry. Perhaps, it's a combination of both. From 1983 - 92, however, Blacks within the insurance industry declined, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Although there had been a slight improvement within the last several years, the number of Blacks in insurance still lagged behind the industry average (8.59 % compared to 10.31 %). Given the impressive growth forecasts for Blacks, 13.6 % by the year 2050, the insurance industry faced a major challenge in bringing a larger percentage of minorities into the workforce, particularly at the sales level.
11/21/2002 In response to mounting concern among the general public about the vast hunger crisis gripping the sub-Saharan African continent, the UN World Food Program (WFP) announced the creation of a global campaign to assist more than 38 million victims. The hunger crisis had grown particularly acute in the wake of 2 major emergencies this year, in the Southern Africa region and in the Horn of Africa. In the 6 countries of Southern Africa: Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique, almost 15 million people were threatened by starvation. In Ethiopia and Eritrea an additional 11-15 million were at risk and the number could go higher. The ?“Africa Hunger Alert?” campaign was in reaction to spontaneous grass-roots initiatives originating among student communities in the US and Canada that now stretched from Europe to Hong Kong. The students and community groups had committed themselves to help generate an international response to the catastrophic conditions in sub-Saharan Africa caused primarily by shifting weather patterns, as well as by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and in some countries, political instability and failed economic policies.
11/21/2002 AIDS was the leading killer of women in South Africa and was claiming increasing numbers of lives every year, according to a government study. South African women were more at risk than men for contracting HIV because of biological vulnerability and their lack of control in sexual relationships. A combined 41% of deaths from 1997-2001 were attributed to tuberculosis, flu and pneumonia which were commonly associated with HIV, as well as HIV itself, the report said. The government report came more than a year after the Medical Research Council, a quasi-governmental organization, released a report saying AIDS would account for 1/3 of all deaths in South Africa in 2001 and nearly 2/3s by 2010 without radical changes in personal behavior and more government action to fight the disease. At the time, Statistics South Africa called the competing study badly flawed, saying the samples were not representative and assumptions about the probability of HIV transmission were not necessarily accurate.
11/21/2003 Taiwan's Cabinet said China was being ?“irrational?” and interfering with its internal affairs after Beijing said the island was running the risk of war by pushing for a new constitution and referendum bill. A Taiwanese official criticized Beijing for persistently using the threat of force against Taiwan. ?“Military threat is not an effective solution to cross-Strait problems. It shouldn't even be an option,?” Tsai Ing-wen, Chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council, said in a speech to delegates of the Overseas Chinese Commission.
11/21/2003 American Indian buying power had more than doubled since 1990, and was projected to grow another 40% in the next 5 years, according to a new academic study. However, despite an impressive total growth projection of 227% between 1990 and 2008, the Native share of total buying power in the US would barely budge, remaining below Native representation in the national mix, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the Terry College of Business at the U of Georgia. That?’s because the booming population growth rates of American Indians and Alaska Natives would take up much of the growth in disposable income. Nevertheless, according to the Selig Center, the after-tax incomes of minorities: American Indians, Blacks/African Americans, Asians and Hispanics, ?“together wield formidable economic clout.?” That 227% growth in buying power, a compound annual growth of 6.8% over 18 years, bested the Selig Center?’s projections for the country as a whole (148%), Blacks/African Americans (189%) and Whites (128% ).
11/21/2003 What stood out was that in the succession of conflicts in Liberia since 1989, many women and sometimes the same women, were raped by fighters from all sides. They were raped when Taylor was a rebel leader fighting his way to the presidency. They were raped when the next band of rebels fought to oust him. They had been raped since Taylor's departure on 8/11/03, as his loyalists and enemies continued to fight in remote jungle outposts far from areas patrolled by 4,000 UN peacekeepers. The scale of the problem was impossible to ascertain precisely in a country where everything had been destroyed. But anecdotal evidence suggested that 14 years of intermittent warfare crushed many traditional sanctions, unleashing conduct unthinkable in normal times. Mothers and daughters were raped by the same men. Boys assaulted women old enough to be their mothers. Rebuilding the social fabric was among the toughest challenges facing Liberia?’s transitional government. That government was made up of the very warring factions that were accused of atrocities and it remained to be seen how it would respond to the competing demands of reconciliation and redress.
11/21/2003 Many in Kenya?’s Muslim minority were deeply suspicious of the US, their distrust fed by TV images of violence in Iraq and the West Bank and by preachers telling them America was bent on destroying Islam. Even the best intentions were misread. After the troops fixed the plumbing at the Lamu Girls?’ Secondary School, rumors spread that they had poisoned the water. Al-Qaida operatives, Kenyans among them, had twice struck in the East African country, blowing up the US Embassy in Nairobi in 1998 and attacking a coastal hotel frequented by Israelis a year ago. In 6/03, a Kenyan allegedly belonging to al-Qaida reportedly told police of a plot to attack the new American embassy. The hearts-and-minds strategy was launched in 6/03, when the US started deploying 30 soldiers from the 478th Civil Affairs Battalion to Lamu from their base in the Republic of Djibouti to the north. Lamu was once ruled by Sultans from the Arabian peninsula and the town had benefitted from Saudi funding of mosques, schools and the hospitals. Many in the town of about 20,000 spoke basic Arabic, so they could understand Arab TV stations that ?“are not showing the good side of America,?” said Ghalib Al-Alwiy Sharriff, owner of the popular Bush Gardens restaurant. Apart from a steady stream of Iraq and West Bank footage, they also carried American TV shows such as ?“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,?” which didn?’t go down too well in a deeply traditional society.
11/22/1864 Black and White Militiamen returned heavy fire on Union troops at the Battle of Griswoldsville, near Macon, GA. were approximately 600 CSA boys and elderly men were killed in the skirmish.
11/22/1865 The Mississippi Legislature enacted the "Black Codes" which restricted the rights and freedom of movement of freedmen whereby Mississippi and other Southern states virtually reenslaved them. In some states, any White person could arrest any Black-American, in other states, minor officials could arrest them as "vagrants" and "refractory and rebellions Negroes" and forced them to work on roads and levees without pay. "Servants" in South Carolina were required to work from sunrise to sunset, to be quiet and orderly and go to bed at "reasonable hours." It was a crime in Mississippi for Blacks to own farm land and in South Carolina, Blacks had to get a special license to work outside the domestic and farm laborer categories.
11/22/1871 Black Republican Louisiana Lt. Governor Oscar J. Dunn, died suddenly in the midst of a bitter struggle for control of the state government and aides charged that he had been poisoned.
11/22/1930 The Nation of Islam was founded in Detroit by Elijah Muhammed.
11/22/1942 Guion Stewart ?“Guy?” Bluford, Jr., future USAF Colonel and the 1st Black-American in space (8/30/1983), was born in Philadelphia, PA.
11/22/1943 Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek, US President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in Cairo to discuss measures for defeating Japan.
11/22/1967 The United Nations Security Council approved Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from territories it captured in 1967 War and implicitly called on adversaries to recognize Israel?’s right to exist.
11/22/1968 A portrait of Frederick Douglass appeared on the cover of Life magazine heralding the cover story, "Search for a Black Past," the 1st in a 4-part series of stories in which the magazine examined Black-Americans, a review of the last 50 years of struggle and interviews with Eldridge Cleaver, Dick Gregory, Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond and others.
11/22/1972 The Trail of Broken Treaties Security Coordinator Leonard Peltier was attacked in a Milwaukee restaurant by 2 off-duty policemen; he was beaten severely and then arrested and charged with the attempted murder of one of his assailants. Peltier was eventually acquitted when trial testimony revealed that one of the cops had shown his girlfriend a picture of Peltier and boasted of "help[ing] the FBI get a big one."
11/22/1990 The US Census admitted it had undercounted Black-Americans in Detroit, MI, causing a serious issue because of its impact on federal funding for the city.
11/22/1997 South Korean President Kim Young Sam apologized to the people on televison for the country?’s economic malaise.
11/22/2000 The Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. completed the largest initial public offering (IPO) yet in the People?’s Republic of China, raising nearly $1 billion by selling 1.87 billion new shares.
11/22/2001 Mohammed Ibrahim Kamel, who resigned as Egypt's Foreign Minister on 9/16/1978 in protest against the Camp David peace accords with Israel, predicting accurately that they would isolate President Sadat and Egypt in the Arab world without resolving the Palestinian question. Prior to his appointment he briefly serving with the Justice Ministry, joined the foreign service in 1956. After several junior foreign postings, he was Ambassador to Zaire, Sweden and Germany in the 1960's and 70's. In 1977, Mr. Sadat appointed him Foreign Minister without any prior consultation after Ismail Fahmy resigned in protest against Mr. Sadat's decision to visit Jerusalem and address the Israeli Parliament. After his own resignation, Mr. Kamel worked for a human rights organization in Egypt and wrote newspaper articles, died in Cairo at age 74. Born in Cairo in 1927, Mr. Kamel, the son of an Egyptian judge, studied law at Cairo University, where he first met Mr. Sadat as a member of the radical Young Egypt Party fighting for an end to British rule.
11/22/2002 Fighting between the army and ethnic Hutu rebels had prompted as many as 10,000 people to flee their homes 25 miles northwest of Bujumbura, the capitol of Urundi, officials said. The fighting had worsened since peace talks broke off this month. Dating to 1993, war between the Tutsi-led army and Hutu rebels had killed about 300,000 people. The army and the rebel group called Forces for Defense of Democracy accused each other of being the aggressor in the fighting.
11/22/2002 Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela, planned to sue Parliament to overturn its ruling that she violated finance regulations for lawmakers. Parliament's Ethics Committee unanimously ruled in 8/02 that Madikizela-Mandela failed to disclose 50,000 rand ($5,000) a month in donations and financial interests from the Mandela Family Museum. The committee recommended she face a 12,500 rand ($1,250) fine, a public rebuke by Parliament's Speaker and an undetermined penalty for being in contempt of Parliament. Last week, lawmakers unanimously approved the committee's ruling. Madikizela-Mandela, who rarely attended Parliament, repeatedly ignored invitations by the committee to appear before it, claiming she was ill. An anti-apartheid hero and member of the ruling African National Congress, Madikizela-Mandela was popular with many poor urban Blacks but the party hierarchy had criticized her as undisciplined and self-promoting. She was also on trial on 85 counts of fraud and theft involving nearly 1 million rand (US$100,000) in fraudulent bank loans.
11/22/2002 Tharcisse Renzaho, 58, a former Governor of Kigali, the capitol or Rwanda, pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity at the UN tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania. Mr. Renzaho was arrested in Congo in 9/2002 and charged with broadcasting orders over Radio Rwanda urging the killing of Tutsi and with distributing guns to militias responsible for the mass killing in 1994 of Tutsi and moderate Hutu.
11/23/1867 The Louisiana Constitutional Convention (49 Black and 49 White delegates) met in the Mechanics Institute in New Orleans.
11/23/1897 J.L. Love received a patent for the pencil sharpener, Andrew J. Beard received a patent for the "jerry coupler," still in use today to connect railroad cars.
11/23/1905 Henry Watson Furness, an Indiana physician, was named the last Black-American US Minister to Haiti during this period in history.
11/23/1925 Jose Napoleon Duarte, future President of El Salvador (1984 - 89), was born (d: 2/23/ 1990, at age 64).
11/23/1971 The People Republic of China was seated in the UN Security Council replacing the Republic of China/Taiwan.
11/23/1985 Retired US CIA analyst Larry Wu-tai Chin was arrested and accused of spying for the People?’s Republic of China. He committed suicide a year after his conviction.
11/23/2003 The stately but dilapidated home of Carter G. Woodson, who pioneered the study of Black history, will be restored and opened as a museum and tourist attraction under new federal legislation, fulfilling a longtime goal of preservationists and scholars of the Black experience. The US Senate passed a bill establishing a National Historic Site in the Victorian rowhouse at 1538 Ninth St. NW, where Woodson worked from 1922 until his death in 1950. The bill, which the House of Representatives passed in 5/2003, goes to President Bush for signing. Only 2 National Park Service sites in the District primarily honor Blacks: the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House near Logan Circle in Northwest Washington and the Frederick Douglass home in the Anacostia section of Southeast Washington. ?“I am elated and relieved to know this dream is finally going to be realized,?” said Gloria Harper Dickinson, President of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which Woodson founded in 1915. The project?’s history went back several years. In 10/2000, Congress directed the Park Service to conduct a study of the house and its suitability for federal management. The study, released in 1/2001, concluded that the house was ?“suitable for inclusion?” in the national park system. Most people who testified at a 7/2001 public hearing supported the plan. The Woodson house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976. Except for a small plaque noting that fact, however, the condition of the house said little about its significance. The 3-story structure, built about 1890 with a front made of hard-burned red brick, had been vacant for more than a decade.
11/24/1805 Sacagawea , Shoshone Indian guide and York, a Black-American slave, both members of the party reached the Pacific Ocean with western explorers Lewis and Clark (See: 11/15/1805).
11/24/1865 Mississippi established state laws aimed at restricting the rights of the newly freed slaves, known as the ?“Black Codes.?” These particular codes enacted on this date prohibited Blacks from bearing arms, serving on juries, testifying in court and having access to White schools.
11/24/1874 Republicans Stephen A. Swails was reelected President Pro Tem of the Senate and
Robert B. Elliott was elected Speaker of the Lower House of the South Carolina legislature.
11/24/1884 Itzhak Ben-Zvi, future 2nd President of the state of Israel (1952 - 63) succeeding Chaim Weizmann, was born (d: 4/23/1963 at age 78).
11/24/1899 Khalifa Abdullah and the remainder of his Mahdist ?“dervish?” Army were wiped out by an Anglo-Egyptian army under the commanded by Lord Kitchener during the 2nd Sudanese War (1896-1899) and the Sudan fell under Anglo-Egyptian rule (See: 9/2/1898).
11/24/1919 Dorrie Miller, future Black-American US Navy ?“messboy?” hero of Pearl Harbor, was born in Waco, TX.( d: 11/24/1943, killed on his 24th birthday while serving aboard the USS Liscome Bay, when a Japanese submarine sunk his ship in the South Pacific).
11/24/1935 Ron Dellums, future Black-American civil rights advocate and US Congressman (D-CA)and among his leadership roles will be Chairman of the District of Columbia Committee, was born in Oakland, CA.
11/24/1943 Black Navy Mess Attendant 1st Class Dorrie Miller, reluctantly acknowledged hero of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona, serving aboard the USS Liscome Bay was killed on his 24th birthday, when a Japanese submarine sunk his ship in the South Pacific (b: 11/24/1919, in Waco, TX).
11/24/1947 Harvey Springer, Englewood, Colorado, an evangelist, said he wanted to file a libel suit against Denver Mayor Quigg Newton's committee on human relations for branding him as an "agitator" in Denver's racial disturbances.
11/24/1997 South Korean stocks fell 7.2% on fears that the IMF may demand tough reforms.
11/24/1997 Black US astronaut Winston Scott and astronaut Takao Doi aboard the space shuttle Columbia successfully completed the rescue of a 3,000 pound satellite, the 1st in 51/2 years, under a plan approved by NASA.
11/24/1999 Attorneys filed Keepseagle, et al, vs. Glickman, a class-action suit against the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) wherein American Indians farmers and ranchers may find restitution from years of discrimination from the USDA. The action covers the period from 1/1/1981 - 12/31/1999. The Indians are being represented by Conlon, Frantz, Phelan and Pires, the Washington, DC law firm that filed the Black Farmers suit against the USDA.
11/24/2001 Few motorists speeding along the newly widened U.S. Highway 89 to the canyons and parklands north of Flagstaff, Ariz., knew of the archaeological treasure that were uncovered in just a 17-mile stretch, as archaeologists preceded the road crew's bulldozers found more than 100,000 artifacts, the remains of Native American agricultural and trading cultures that sprouted in the 5th century A.D. and lasted for more than 800 years. Those pieces of carved rock and arrowheads, ceramics and animal bones were headed for the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, the official repository for Highway 89's archaeological bounty. But once deposited, the museum would be forced to close its doors to new artifacts from public projects. There was just no more room. The Museum of Northern Arizona was not alone. The combination of preservation legislation and explosive growth in the Southwest over the last decade had created an archaeological boom that had completely overwhelmed the region's museums and anthropological centers, archaeologists, museum executives and government officials said. Their institutions could not handle all the artifacts found and excavated during publicly financed projects, which were known in the trade as cultural resource materials, or C.R.M.'s. The logjam was so bad that some museums like Northern Arizona were closing their doors to the resource materials and others were limiting what they would accept, while a 3rd group had increased their fees for cataloguing, analyzing and storing them by as much as 10-fold.
11/24/2002 At least 175 people were killed and 12,000 left homeless in rioting in Nigeria sparked by the Miss World pageant, whose contestants flew to London after organizers hastily moved the event. Human rights workers said the Muslim- Christian clashes had continued in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, but the situation was generally calm by late afternoon. Soldiers fired in the air, warning people off the streets as residents rushed home on foot and in crowded buses ahead of a curfew. The rioting in mainly Muslim Kaduna began on 11/20 as a protest against a newspaper article that offended Muslims because it said the Prophet Mohammad would probably have married one of the Miss World contestants were he alive today. Human rights workers said soldiers and police officers had been arrested on suspicion of taking sides in the bloodletting. They said they had recorded credible accounts of extra-judicial executions by security forces.
11/24/2002 Akili McMackin, 3, of Richmond, VA., whose mother's ancestors were African slaves and Choctaw Indians, was a descendant of the 1st Mayflower Pilgrims through his father. Akili shared his Mayflower ancestry with several US presidents, including George W. Bush (they were 11th cousins, twice removed), who all traced their lineage back to Pilgrim John Howland, according to Akili's father, Eric. Mom Christel said she hoped her son's family history would help him ?“to embrace everything that creates America and that's the people.?” She believed his shared ancestry goes to the core of what America stood for. ?“It goes back to the very beginning, opportunity,?” his mother said. ?“America has been the land of opportunity for us all.?”
11/24/2002 Amanda Meiling Woo, 17, a high school senior, of Louisville said people were surprised to learn she's a descendant, through her mom, of 8 Mayflower Pilgrims. Amanda described her heritage this way: ?“It's really interesting. You hear so much about the Mayflower at school and knowing that your family was a part of that is just incredible.?” Having a dual heritage, her father's parents came to the US from China, was a source of pride. ?“I think it shows what America is about,?” she sais. ?“It's about a blending of cultures, all the cultures that make up America.?”
11/24/2002 Ecuadoran Lucio Gutierrez, 45, a former army colonel, with 97% of the presidential votes counted had 54.3%, compared with 45.7% for Alvaro Noboa, 52, who headed a banana and shipping empire that included 110 companies. Gutierrez earned his reputation as a crusader against corruption when he led a group of disgruntled junior army officers and 5,000 Indian protesters in a coup in 1/2000 that ousted President Jamil Mahuad during Ecuador's worst economic crisis in decades. Gutierrez was expelled from the army for the rebellion and spent 6 months in a military prison. The image appeared to hold strong appeal for voters fed up with leaders who plunder government coffers.
11/24/2003 The Eritrean Minerals Corp. had a 75% interest in it purchased by Northern Mining Explorations Ltd. Financial terms of the deal were not released. Northern Mining (TSX:MDN) said it bought the stake in Eritrean Minerals from Adulis Resources Inc. (TSX:ADE), an Alberta company with a $5.2-million stock-market value which was refocusing as an oil and gas company. ?“Eritrea has remained barely explored and one can still identify historic and very significant gold mineralization with limited exploration,?” Northern Mining CEO Carlos Bertoni said in a statement. The Montreal-based company held a 30% interest in the Tulawaka gold project in Tanzania as well as gold and base-metal exploration interests in Quebec. The Tulawaka project was a 30-70 joint venture between Northern Mining and Pangea Goldfield Inc., a subsidiary of Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX).
11/24/2003 Of the hundreds of foreign fighters detained by US troops in Iraq, approximately 25% came from the 7 countries that fall under the purview of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, US Marine Brig. Gen. Mastin Robeson told AP. The task force was responsible for fighting terrorism in 7 Horn of Africa countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The impoverished, Islamic region was a well-established recruiting ground for terrorist groups and US officials described it as a critical theater in the war on terrorism, which they feared could become another Afghanistan. Robeson said suspected terrorists from Tanzania, through the Horn of Africa, all the way to southern Egypt and Saudi Arabia were working with each other to promote radicalism. US forces 1st arrived in Djibouti, located where the Red Sea opened into the Gulf of Aden, in 6/2002. The country was a French colony, carved out of the Horn of Africa because of its strategic location and a natural, deep water harbor. Robeson said his job was to empower governments in the region to stop terrorism by helping them improve their militaries, police, coast guards and intelligence services. His troops also helped the governments fight poverty through humanitarian projects. All the governments, with the exception of Somalia, which doesn't have a central government, were fully cooperating in what Robeson said was a long-term effort that would take years to complete.
11/24/2003 Students from Africa, Asia and Latin America, were trapped by a fire that engulfed the dormitory of the People?’s Friendship University, in Moscow, before dawn, shrieked for help and leaped from the top floors of the 5-story building when they found some exits locked, survivors said. Thirty-six students were killed and nearly 200 were injured. Vladimir Rodin, a deputy chief of Russia?’s fire service, said on Channel One television that the building lacked a fire alarm system and there was no evacuation plan for its residents, many of whom didn?’t speak Russian. Once a showpiece of Soviet patronage of the Third World, receiving generous state subsidies, the university fell into disrepair with the 1991 fall of communism. Still, it continued to draw students from impoverished nations with its low tuition, such as medical school costs of US$1,200 a year. Students said the dead and injured included citizens of China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Tahiti, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Angola, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Kazakhstan, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Peru and Malaysia. The Chinese government said that the fire had killed at least 5 Chinese students and injured 34 others. Another 13 students from China were missing, according to the Web site of the People's Daily Newspaper which sited the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The university was founded in 1960 and named Patrice Lumumba People?’s Friendship University in honor of the postcolonial Congo?’s 1st Prime Minister; its name was changed in 1992. Its aim was to offer a strict Marxist curriculum to students from developing nations. Russia had a high rate of fire deaths, 18,000 a year, nearly 5 times the number of fire deaths in the US, which had twice the population. Experts said fire fatalities had skyrocketed since the end of the Soviet Union, in part because of lower public vigilance and a disregard for safety standards.
11/24/2003 Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, 59, the author of the landmark Massachusetts decision that gave the American gay rights movement an historic victory last week came of age in South Africa in the midst of its long battle for equality. Marshall, the 1st immigrant and 1st woman to lead the state?’s 313-year-old Supreme Judicial Court, began her journey to the bench in South Africa. She was a White student leader of the anti-apartheid movement in the 1960s, a time when defiance led to bloodshed. Marshall was 1st appointed to the bench in 1996, after 4 years as General Counsel and Vice President of Harvard University. She became Chief Justice 3 years later. Her coming-of-age in the crucible of apartheid had a profound influence on her actions as leader of the oldest appellate court in the Western hemisphere, according to her colleagues and legal observers and can be seen in the 11/18/2003 decision granting gay couples the right to marry. Even many of those who disagreed with her ultimate conclusion admired the legal path she took. At Witwatersrand U in Johannesburg in 1966, Marshall led several student organizations, including the 20,000-member National Union of South African students, helping to lead anti-apartheid activities and protests. Marshall emigrated to the US in 1968 for masters?’ work at Harvard and later earned her law degree from Yale U. She passed the bar in 1976, a year before she became a US citizen. She worked at several Boston firms, specializing in intellectual property matters. She was married to former NY Times columnist Anthony Lewis. Her appointment to the high court in 1996 was criticized by lawmakers and community activists who had been championing minority candidates. And from Liberia?’s strife, a legacy of rape arose.
11/25/1915 Augusto Pinochet, future Chilean army general, dictator and President of Chile (1973-90), who a report by the civilian government that succeeded him said 3,197 people disappeared or were killed while he was in power, who will face 177 criminal complaints from human rights violations during his rule and who will say ?“as a former President of the Republic, I accept all the facts that they say the army and the armed forces did?” on his 85th birthdate, was born.
11/25/1922 Marcus Garvey electrified a crowd at Liberty Hall in New York City as he stated the goals and principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA): "We represent peace, harmony, love, human sympathy, human rights and human justice... we are marshaling the four hundred million Negroes of the world to fight for the emancipation of the race and for the redemption of the country of our fathers."
11/25/1935 Namahyoke Sokum Curtis, who led a team of 32 Black-Americans to nurse yellow fever victims during the Spanish-American War, died and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
11/25/1955 Segregation in interstate travel including buses and trains as well as terminals and waiting rooms was banned by the US Interstate Commerce Commission (See: 12/5/ 1960).
11/25/1974 U. Thant, former Burmese UN Secretary-General, died in New York at age 65 (b: 1/22/1909 in Burma/Myanmar).
11/25/1975 Suriname gained independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Henk Arron
became the 1st Prime Minister and was re-elected in 1977 (See: 12/15/1954 ).
11/25/1987 Harold Washington, Chicago?’s 1st Black Mayor, died at age 65 after suffering a heart attack in his City Hall office (b: 4/15/1922).
11/25/1998 The People?’s Republic of China?’s President Jiang Zemin arrived in Tokyo for the 1st visit to Japan by a Chinese Head of State since WW II.
11/25/2001 Air Afrique workers began a 3-day go-slow targeting Air France flights to 11 African countries to force more concessions from the French airline, which is due to become the largest shareholder in a revamped Air Afrique. Air Afrique, had a 510-million-euro (464-million-dollar) debt burden, was seen as overstaffed with a total of 4,200 workers, 600 of whom were flight crew. In 8/2001, Air Afrique's member states agreed in Brazzaville on a restructuring package that will leave them with just 20% of Air Afrique's shares and give Air France 35%, making the French company the main shareholder. Adote Gandhi Akwei, the Secretary- General of the Air Afrique workers' union, said: ?“We want a decent social plan, negotiated and financed by Air France and in line with the Brazzaville accord. We also want workers to be part of the negotiation process.?” The social plan envisaged by the unions included the payment of ?“golden handshakes?” to any workers laid off. Mansour Diop, Communications Director of Air Afrique said a special committee, comprising representatives from the member states and Air France, was due to submit its recommendations on the new airline to Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo on 12/3/2001. Air Afrique was set up 40 years ago by Benin, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Congo, Ivory Coast, Mali, Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo and hailed as a symbol of pan-African cooperation. Air Afrique recently had to hand back 4 planes leased from the Paris-based firm International Finance Lease Corporation (IFLC) due to arrears. The IFLC was threatening to take back 2 more planes. If that were to happen, Air Afrique would be left with a fleet of only 3 long-distance planes, one of which was not airworthy (See: 6/14/2001 and 8/14/2001).
11/25/2002 A comparison of selected FBI hate crime statistics from 2001 and 2000. TOTAL INCIDENTS AND VICTIMS: 2001: 9,730 against 12,020 victims. 2000: 8,063 against 9,924 victims. RACIAL INCIDENTS. 2001: 2,899 anti-Black, 891 anti-White, 280 anti-Asian and 80 anti-American Indian/Alaskan native. 2000: 2,884 anti-Black, 875 anti-White, 281 anti-Asian and 57 anti-American Indian/Alaskan native. ETHNICITY/NATIONAL ORIGIN INCIDENTS. 2001: 1,501 anti-Middle Eastern or others and 597 Hispanic.. 2000: 354 anti-Middle Eastern or others and 557 Hispanic. RELIGIOUS INCIDENTS. 2001: 1,043 anti-Jewish, 481 anti-Islamic, 38 anti-Roman Catholic, 35 anti-Protestant. 2000: 1,109 anti-Jewish, 28 anti-Islamic, 56 anti-Roman Catholic, 59 anti-Protestant. SEXUAL ORIENTATION INCIDENTS. 2001: 1,375 anti-homosexual or anti-bisexual. 2000: 1,277 anti-homosexual or anti-bisexual. VICTIMS. 2001: 3,700 Black; 1,065 White; 1,196 Jewish; 1,822 Middle Eastern or other ethnicity; 812 Hispanic; 1,152 male homosexual. 2000: 3,535 Black; 1,080 White; 1,269 Jewish; 453 Middle Eastern or other ethnicity; 763 Hispanic; 1,060 male homosexual. KNOWN OFFENDERS. 2001: 6,054 White, 1,882 Black, 755 race unknown. 2000: 4,111 White, 1,021 Black, 657 race unknown.
11/25/2002 Zamfara Deputy Governor Mahamoud Shinkafi of a largely Islamic state in northern Nigeria called on Muslims to kill Isioma Daniel, a Lagos-based fashion writer with ThisDay, the Nigerian writer of a newspaper article about the Miss World beauty pageant that sparked deadly religious riots. Daniel, reportedly went into hiding after being interrogated by police last week in connection with the article, which suggested Islam's founding prophet Muhammed would have approved of Miss World and might have wanted to marry one of the contestants. Her religion was unknown. Zamfara was the 1st of 12 states to adopt Islamic law, or Shariah, after Nigerian military rule gave way to elected government in 1999. Religious clashes since then had killed thousands across the country.
11/25/2002 Comically candid and light on his feet, the ageless former Yemeni Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, now serving as a Senior Adviser to President Ali Abdallah Salih Abdel-Karim Iryani knew instinctively what a Washington audience wanted to hear. And he insisted that Yemenis were fed up with terrorists in their midst. In an interview and in other public remarks there, he made it clear that Yemen was cooperating wholeheartedly with the US in its war against terror, with no hesitation or fear of backlash.
11/25/2003 Nigeria would surrender ousted Liberian leader Charles Taylor for trial if that country asked, President Olusegun Obasanjo, Taylor's host in exile, said. Obasanjo had adamantly resisted surrendering Taylor on an existing indictment by a UN-backed court, but made clear he would listen if Liberia itself asked. Taylor had lived in exile in southern Nigeria since early 8/03, when he fled, under international pressure, as rebels laid siege to his capitol, Monrovia. If Liberia's new interim government decided it wanted him to face charges there, ?“then I believe he will understand sufficiently the need to go home,?”Obasanjo told foreign reporters. Asked what he would do if Taylor resisted, Obasanjo responded, ?“I would persuade him.?” Liberia?’s government had not specifically said it wanted Taylor for trial. Interim leader Gyude Bryant had said he feared war-crimes trials would harm reconciliation in the country.
11/25/2003 According to the Federal Reserve data used in an analysis, the net worth of the typical Black household increased from $5,919 in 1989 to $19,010 in 2001. That was an increase of 221%. All households in the US saw an increase of only 33% for the same period. However, Black households were still behind the nationwide median average of $86,100 in 2001, according to Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation. And while Blacks had narrowed the ?“wealth gap,?” they still lagged behind the rest of the country. The study credited the boost for Black households to a rising rate in home ownership. Census Bureau statistics for the 3rd quarter of 2003 showed that 48%, almost half of all Blacks, were homeowners, compared to the national average of 68.4%. But Black Enterprise economist Dr. William Spriggs and Executive Director of Research and Public Policy at the National Urban League Institute for Opportunity & Equality, said other factors were influencing this important area of wealth building. ?“The increased value in homes, which stalled over 1998 to 2001 in the data, may have reflected the recovery of urban centers and the price increase from gentrification and the shift of African Americans to the inner suburbs.?” But ?“It will be a considerable amount of time to close the wealth gap,?” said Spriggs. ?“The major way wealth is accumulated is over generations, not over lifetimes. (Until) there?… (is a) more dramatic closing of the income gap,?” disparities will continue to exist.
11/25/2003 The number of hungry people worldwide swelled in recent years, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, thanks to war, drought, AIDS and trade barriers, according to a report titled ?“The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003,?” and released by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization. The report found that after falling steadily in the 1st half of the 1990's, hunger grew in the latter half of the decade. Between 1999 and 2001, the report found that more than 840 million people, or 1 in 7 worldwide, went hungry. Most alarming of all, the report found, between 1995 and 2001 across the developing world, the number of malnourished people grew by an average of 4.5 million a year. The rise in hunger came even as the world produced ample food. ?“Bluntly stated, the problem is not so much a lack of food as a lack of political will,?” the report said. The world body called on rich countries to invest in improving agricultural productivity in rural areas, conserving natural resources and expanding global market access for farmers in the developing world. Citizens of countries that spend significant portions of their limited export earnings on buying food from abroad were most likely to go hungry, the report concluded. Only 19 countries, including China, reduced hunger among its people throughout the 1990's. In an additional 17 countries, where hunger had begun falling in the early 1990's, the number of malnourished people climbed in the latter half of the decade, including in such densely populated nations as India, Nigeria and Sudan. Most startling were the figures from war-torn countries like Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In those countries, a great many of them in West and Central Africa, agricultural production had ground to a standstill. In southern Africa, meanwhile, the H.I.V. pandemic has robbed families of their breadwinners and some families had been forced to abandon their fields altogether. Pointing to the success of some countries in combating hunger, the report singled out efforts by Brazil to tackle the root causes of hunger: poverty, unemployment and land distribution.
11/26/1802 The Africans/Garifunas arrived in Guatemala after being evicted form St. Vincent by the British. In 2002, there were 4 - 6,000 Garifuna in Guatemala. Many more Guatemalan Garifuna, roughly 15,000, could be found in New York. There was work in New York. In Guatemala, it was distance and distrust that were plentiful. After all, 70% of Guatemalans were Mayan Indians; the names of many of its cities, Chichicastenango, Uaxactun and Ixtahuacan, reflected that heritage. The presence of Black folks was perceived to be so rare, so odd, that they were a lure for tourists. But ethnic differences there cannot be so neatly divided. To walk the streets of Guatemala City or Flores, was to see traces of Africa in the faces of many Guatemaltecos (See: 1797).
11/26/1832 Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, future 1st woman and civilian to win the US Medal of Honor for services rendered during the Civil War, was born in Oswego, NY.(d: 2/21/191 at age 87 in Oswego, NY).
11/26/1872 Macon B. Allen was elected judge of the Lower Court of Charleston, SC. the 1st Black-American lawyer, became the 2nd Black to hold a major judicial position and the 1st with a major judicial position on the municipal level.
11/26/1883 Born Isabella, she recreated herself as Sojourner Truth, a courageous and ardent Black abolitionist, a women?’s advocate and a brilliant speaker, died at approximately 80 years of age (b: around 11/18/1787(?) in Ulster County, NY).
11/26/1919 Daisy E. Lenoir Elliot, future Black-American who will co-sponsor in the Michigan State Legislature the most far-reaching civil rights law of any state (1937), was born in Filbert, WV.
11/26/1949 India adopted a Constitution as a Republic within the British Commonwealth.
11/26/1950 The Peoples Republic of China entered the Korean Conflict, launching a counter-offensive against soldiers from the US, South Korean and the UN.
11/26/1969 Reies Lopez Tijerina was convicted on 2 charges in the second Tierra Amarilla trial and was sentenced to 2 concurrent prison terms.
11/26/1970 Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., the US Army?’s 1st Black-American General appointed by President F.D. Roosevelt on 10/25/1940, who during WW II forced General Dwight Eisenhower to accept Black platoons in White units, died in Chicago after 50 years of military service at age 93 (b: 12/18/1912 in Washington, DC).
11/26/1997 Delegations led by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan of The Democratic People?’s Republic of Korean and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charles Kartman of the US, in a small but symbolic step, held high-level discussions at the US State Department for the first time. The Korean delegation also thanked the US for the food aid provided by the Clinton Administration.
11/26/1997 Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe?’s government will press ahead with plans to seize more than 1,000 mostly White-owned farms and hand them over to landless Black peasants. The confiscations would proceed despite a refusal by Britain, the former colonial power, to help pay compensation to descendants of British settlers. Mugabe said he told White farmers that ?“colonial exercise?” of land ownership would be ?“corrected once and for all.?”
11/26/1997 Jesse Jackson will travel to Kenya and Zambia on behalf on US President Clinton starting 11/29/1997 to promote democracy in the 2 countries. It will be Mr. Jackson?’s 1st overseas mission since his appointment last month as Clinton?’s Special Envoy for encouraging democratic development in Africa. His trip was scheduled to last about a week.
11/26/2000 Haiti's former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide took 92 % of almost 3 million votes in a national election that was shunned by opposition parties and key international allies.
11/26/2001 Joe Modise, who led the armed struggle in South Africa to topple apartheid, who in 1956 was charged with treason, but the case was later dropped. Then after the ANC was banned in 1960 was appointed High Commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the movement's military wing and participated in its 1st ever operations. In 1963 he went into exile to receive military training in Czechoslovakia and Russia and oversaw the setting up of military bases in Tanzania, Angola and Uganda and training programs for young activists in Cuba, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, China and East Germany. When apartheid began to crumble in the late 1980s, he returned to South Africa to join the ANC team that negotiated the terms of the country's democratic transition and went on to become the country's Defense Minister after all-race elections in 1994. As Defense Minister, Modise oversaw the thorny process of uniting the security forces that defended apartheid and those that sought to overthrow it, a task achieved with mixed success. When Nelson Mandela handed over the Presidency to Mbeki after 5 years in office, Modise quit politics to go into business, died of cancer, at age 72 in Pretoria, South Africa. Modise was survived by his wife and 2 daughters (b: ?/?/19238, Johannesburg).
11/26/2001 Ivory Coast's former junta leader, General Robert Guei denied rigging a chaotic presidential ballot that led to his ouster last year, accusing instead supporters of current President Laurent Gbagbo. Speaking for the first time at a National Reconciliation Forum that began last month, Gen. Robert Guei said the elections, held in 10/2000, were rife with ?“spectacular violations of the elementary rules of democracy.?” Guei's government organized last year's vote but the coup leader suspended vote counting when it appeared he would lose, a move which sparked a popular uprising which brought Gbagbo, then a prominent opposition leader, to power. The Forum, held under pressure from international donors, was aimed at healing deep political and social rifts that had surfaced after the 1999 coup. The Forum was due to end on 12/8/01. Alassane Dramane Ouattara was the only one of Gbagbo's 3 main rivals who had yet to attend. Henri Konan Bedie, who was overthrown by Guei, returned from exile in October and addressed the Forum soon after. Ouattara, said he will only attend if he was declared fully Ivorian. Ivory Coast's Supreme Court disqualified Ouattara from last year's elections because of questions about his nationality. Ouattara insisted both he and his parents were Ivorian (See: 12/1999).
11/26/2001 The grim building rises from the earth like a fortress, all gray stone and rusting steel. Visitors paid the $2 admission fee and flinched as they were arbitrarily assigned a racial classification: blankes (Whites) or nie-blankes, Kaffir, Native and Coolie location (non-Whites). This was the entrance to South Africa's 1st apartheid museum, in Johannesburg, which opened as a biting reminder of a past that many people here would prefer to forget. Visitors received a card denoting their racial identity and were directed to 1 of 2 revolving doors, one for Blacks, one for Whites. Here the separation experience began. In the passage for Blacks the walls were covered with faded photos from old passbooks, the identity documents that Blacks were forced to carry and scores of other ordinary people who were barred from voting and from owning homes and businesses because they had Black skin. in the days of White rule. At the end of the hallway 4 White men await, frozen in a wall-size photograph.. They were members of the racial- classification board that assigned racial identities by studying the kink of hair, the width of noses, the fullness of lips and the most minute gradations of skin color. This was a world that ?“White?” visitors to the Apartheid Museum never saw. They pass through a separate hallway covered with the identity cards of Whites. They glimpse the ?“Black?” visitors through a metal grid, but the 2 groups do not mix until the short, separate passages rejoin, and all visitors were guided into the museum's main exhibits. ?“With the entrance we immediately cut to the chase of what apartheid did, which is to classify and divide people,?” said Christopher Till, the Director of the museum.
11/26/2002 Fifteen thousand (15,000) Black former and current Boeing employees had their $15 million settlement lawsuit vacated/threw out the by the 9th US Court of Appeals accusing Boeing of discriminating. The Court in San Francisco objected to the $4 million in legal fees and the large disparity in the payments provided to the employees. The 1999 settlement covered 2 class-action suits that accused the world's biggest maker of passenger jets of discriminating against Blacks when it came to promotions and retaliating against them when they complained. Boeing admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to spend $15 million to compensate the workers and set up programs to fight discrimination. When a federal judge approved the deal in 1999, Jesse Jackson and several Boeing employees objected, arguing that the settlement was inadequate because it did not provide enough money for some and did not go far enough to prevent further bias. The appeals panel, ruling 2-1, agreed the deal was unsatisfactory. Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon said there was no justification for some employees receiving 16 times more than others. The court also found that the $3.85 million in attorneys' fees was unjustified and could have led attorneys for the plaintiffs to undermine their own clients. Alan Epstein, a Philadelphia lawyer representing about 2,000 Boeing workers who objected to the 1999 deal, said the decision meant the case will have to be litigated or a new settlement approved. A Boeing spokesman Ken Mercer had no immediate comment. Nor did Oscar Desper III, one of the attorneys who settled the case (See: 9/30/1999, 1/16/2002 & 5/22/2002).
11/26/2002 As House Democrats picked a new leader for their fund-raising committee, Black lawmakers were again protesting about being overlooked for key positions despite delivering millions of votes each year. Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson had been lobbying to replace Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., as Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. But Jefferson's prospects of getting the plum assignment were anything but certain since the elevation earlier of this month of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to House minority leader, the 1st woman to lead the party in either the House or Senate. The job may go to Rep. Martin Frost, a Texan who challenged Pelosi for the leader's job before dropping out of the race. Frost had Chaired the committee twice before. Pelosi's office said no decision had been made on the position and noted that Rep. James Clyburn of SC, who was Black, was elected Vice Chairman of the caucus last week. Nonetheless, complaints remained that there had been too few Blacks in leadership jobs within the Democratic Party. Some Blacks were angered last year when party leaders pushed Terry McAuliffe to head the Democratic National Committee over Maynard Jackson, a former Atlanta Mayor who was Black. Meanwhile, Republicans prominently featured Rep. J.C. Watts, who was retiring this year after serving as Chairman of the Republican Conference, the No. 4 position in the House GOP leadership.
11/26/2002 Saudi business and tourist travel to the US had plummeted by 2/3s or more in the last year, according to officials on both sides, costing American businesses hundreds of millions of dollars. US exports dropped by 25% from 2001, costing the US at least $1.5 billion. Saudi Arabian Airlines had even canceled its weekly flights to Orlando because fewer Saudis were going to Disney World. As elsewhere in the Middle East, this had taken an economic toll. But it became especially pronounced because of Saudi Arabia's oil-based wealth and historically strong ties to the U S. Charles Kestenbaum, a former commercial officer at the US Embassy in Riyadh until becoming a corporate consultant last summer said, ?“We're treating all Saudis as if they're terrorists. Our inability to distinguish between who is a friend and an enemy turns everyone into an enemy. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.?” Saudi-US relations traced their history to 1945, when US President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with King Abdulaziz ibn Saud, founder of the modern Saudi state, aboard a ship on the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal. That meeting and FDR still held an almost mythic place in the Saudi national identity. Despite a harsh turn in relations during the oil crises of the 1970s, the US helped Saudi Arabia transform itself into a rich, modern state with gleaming buildings, Western stores and many trappings of an American-style consumer culture. So close had the two become that Washington dispatched 500,000 troops to protect the Kingdom and expel Iraqi invaders from neighboring Kuwait in 1991. Stung by what they considered guilt by association, virtually every government official and many educated Saudis recited like a mantra the conclusion that Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born fugitive, deliberately stocked the 9/11 team with Saudis to drive a wedge between the Kingdom and the US.
11/26/2002 As Angola prepared to join the UN Security Council for a 2-year term starting in 1/2003, a joint commission of UN Representatives, government officials and leaders of the Unita rebel movement recommended the lifting of all penalties against the rebels. A declaration signed by Ibrahim Gambari, the UNs' Special Representative to Angola, completed the peace process that was initiated by the Lusaka Protocol of 1994 and formalized by a cease-fire in 4/2002. It indicated the conclusion of more than 2 decades of civil war.
11/26/2002 One day during the week of 12/1/02, 3 nurses will sit down at telephones in Beijing and do something that would have been unheard of in China just a decade ago: They'll try to stop anyone who called from committing suicide. The center will employ 11 doctors and 13 nurses, most of them Chinese. It will offer a range of services, from a toll-free hot line, to counseling and crisis intervention, to comprehensive research, already under way, on suicide and attitudes toward it. But doctors saw an entirely non-clinical development as the most significant sign of changing attitudes: The center was at a public facility, Huilongguan Hospital, and was being funded quite willingly by Beijing's city government. Zhang Jianshu, an official at the Beijing Bureau of Health said, ?“As China develops, we have to pay more attention to this kind of health issue.?” Long before Deng Xiaoping's reforms began 2 decades ago, suicide was a problem for China, particularly among rural women plagued for generations by abuse, unrewarding lives and feelings of deep hopelessness. Researchers using available figures extrapolated that 287,000 Chinese killed themselves each year, making suicide the No. 5 cause of death in the world's most populous country. Some 2 million Chinese try to kill themselves annually. Even more alarming to researchers: Suicide was the No. 1 cause of death for Chinese ages 15 - 34 and women had a 25% higher rate than men. In addition, rural suicide rates were 3 times as high as urban rates.
11/26/2002 A scathing assessment was offered by Kevin Watkins, a policy expert at Oxfam, the development agency that championed the cause of poor nations, to the Bush administration proposal that all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) eliminate tariffs on industrial and consumer goods by 2015, ?“This is an early negotiating gambit, a bit of a PR jaunt,?” he said. He noted that although the US was supposedly offering duty-free access to goods made in sub-Saharan African countries, the amount of apparel that could be shipped to the US under the plan would be restricted and would have to be made from American fabric. ?“This doesn't create the impression of a country that's serious about expanding market opportunities for the poorest countries,?” he said. J. Michael Finger, former lead economist for trade at the World Bank, agreed. ?“You put out all sorts of stuff that can get you a headline and it looks good,?” he said. The Bush administration had been the target of particularly severe criticism for adopting free-trade rhetoric while bowing to demands for protection from steelmakers and farmers.
11/26/2002 EddLee Bankhead, who filed a federal lawsuit seeking reparations. His lawsuit against Aetna Inc., railroad company CSX and other corporations that benefitted from slavery was filed in 9/2002. Bankhead, believed by many to be the oldest man in the US, was the son of slaves, he reportedly worked until his health began to fail at age 101. He died of natural causes at age 119 (b: 1883).
11/26/2003 A report, ?“Africa's Orphaned Generations,?” issued by the UN Children?’s Fund stated that by 2010, there would be about 20 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who will lost at least one parent to AIDS, bringing the total number of orphans in the region to 42 million. In the worst affected countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, more than 1 in 5 children will be orphans by 2010, more than 80% of them because of AIDS, according to the report. Even in countries like Uganda, where HIV prevalence had stabilized or fallen, the number of orphans would remain high because of the proportion of adults already infected with HIV, few of whom had access to life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs. The children, at least half of them were between the ages of 10 and 14. Sub-Saharan Africa was home to nearly three-quarters of the world?’s HIV-infected population. Eight out of every 10 children who had lost parents to AIDS lived in that region. This was critical in a region where only around 1% of the 29 million people living with HIV and AIDS had access to life-prolonging medicines widely available in wealthier countries, UNICEF said.
11/26/2003 More than 100 tribes around the country were challenging the 2000 census results and conducting their own head counts, hoping ultimately to win more federal money for such things as health care and housing. As of 11/1/03, 78 tribes had completed their recounts and 39 had won challenges to the official numbers, said Donna White, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fifty or so other tribes were conducting or considering their own head counts, according to Rick Anderson, a demographer with Tribal Data Resources, a Redding, CA., company that was advising tribes. The Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act, signed by President Clinton in 1996, authorized the recounts. Tribes typically required one-quarter Indian blood to be considered a member, but some allowed as little as one-thirty-second. The Census Bureau let people define themselves. Nationwide, 2.1 million people reported to census takers that they considered themselves pure American Indian or Alaska Native, far more than the 1.7 million officially enrolled in the country?’s 560 federally recognized tribes. Yet some tribes, including the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, found the census counted fewer Indians than were enrolled in the tribe and living on the reservation. A long- standing mistrust of government officials such as census takers was partly to blame, some say. At Warm Springs, the 2000 census counted 3,334 people, of whom 3,018 indicated they were Indians. According to tribal registries, 3,522 tribal members lived on the reservation. That suggests the census missed 504 Warm Springs tribal members, for an error rate of 14%.
11/26/2003 Some 100,000 Black veterans of America?’s military forces, many of them minimum-wage workers with families, were people without a home. They were homeless. These veterans represented nearly half of the 250,000 servicemen and women now on the streets fending, not necessarily begging, for their lives. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), an additional 500,000, ?“experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year.?” Imagene Stewart, a Black woman married to a Korean veteran, operated the DC-based House of Imagene for 31 years as a shelter for veterans and their families. She spoke movingly of the hundreds of wounded and maimed soldiers returning from the present war in Iraq whom she regularly visited at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in DC. ?“They were babies, 18- and 19-year-olds without arms or legs. What were they going to do when they tried to pick up their lives again??” Stewart asked. A critic of the VA, Stewart charged that the agency allowed contractors for veteran's services (such as shelter providers) to ?“get rich?” off veterans?’ misery and pain. And she said VA efforts to help veterans were akin to spitting in the ocean. Homeless veteran numbers increased so rapidly every year that then the number of homeless male and female Vietnam-era veterans was greater than the number of service persons who died during the war. In addition, veterans of the 1st war with Iraq, Desert Storm, were showing up in the homeless population.
11/27/1015 The origin of the Crusades was rooted in the political upheaval that resulted from the expansion of the Seljuk Turks in the Middle East in the mid-11th century. Western Christians viewed the conquest of Syria and Palestine by these aggressive Muslims with fright and alarm. Turkish invaders also penetrated deep into the Christian Byzantine Empire and subjected many Greek, Syrian and Armenian Christians to their rule. The Crusades were in part a reaction to these events, as well as serving the ambitions of 11th-, 12th and 13th-century popes who sought to extend their political and religious power. Crusading armies were, in a sense, the military arm of papal policy. The 1st Crusade began formally on this date, in a field just outside the walls of the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. On that day Pope Urban II outlined a basic strategy: Individual groups of Crusaders would begin the journey in 08/1096. Each group would be self-financing and would make their separate ways to the Byzantine capitol, Constantinople, where they would rendezvous. From there, in concert with the Byzantine emperor and his army, they would launch a counterattack against the Seljuk conquerors of Anatolia. Once that region was under Christian control, the Crusaders would campaign against the Muslims in Syria and Palestine, with Jerusalem as their ultimate goal. In 5/1099 the Crusaders reached the northern borders of Palestine; on the evening of June 7 they camped within sight of Jerusalem?’s walls. The city was at this point under Egyptian control; its defenders were numerous and well prepared for a siege. The Crusaders attacked briskly. They took Jerusalem by storm on 7/15 and then they massacred virtually every inhabitant. In the Crusaders?’ view, they purified the city by washing it in the blood of the defeated infidels (See: 5/1144(?), 9/1145(?), 3/1146(?), 10/29/1187, 12/1219(?), 6/1228, 5/1244(?), 9/1270(?) and 10/1270(?)).
11/27/1841 The Amistad slave mutineers began their return to the Africa continent, home and freedom after being defended by former US President John Quincy Adams and found not guilty.
11/27/1874 Chaim Weizmann, future Zionist leader and the 1st President of Israel (1948 - 52) was born (d: 9/9/1952, at age 77).
11/27/1932 Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., future Philippine opposition leader against the Presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, was born (d: Assassinated 8/21/1983 at age 50).
11/27/1944 George ?“Mickey?” Leland, future Black-American US Congressman (D-TX, 1979 - 89), creator of the of the US House Committee on Hunger and who will die in an airplane crash while surveying the affects of famine in Ethiopia, was born in Lubbock, TX (d: 8/7/1989 plane crash, at age 44).
11/27/1968 Black Panther Party Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver broke his parole by failing to return to prison.
11/27/1989 Democrat L. Douglas Wilder was certified by the Virginia Board of Elections as the winner of the 11/7/1989 election for Governor by the narrow margin of 6,800 votes, becoming the 1st Black Governor and 1st Black Democratic Governor of a southern state since Reconstruction (all previous Black southern Governors were Republican).
11/27/1997 A shortage of voter ID cards had Honduras?’ leading Presidential candidates at odds in a dispute threatening to mar this weekends?’s otherwise sleepy national elections. GBM, a subsidiary of IBM, blamed the shortfall on the government?’s failure to pay all of the $8 million owed on the contract. Election officials decided to issue new voter cards for Sunday?’s election, replacing old credentials that had been distributed to Hondurans since 1984.
11/27/1997 Twenty-five demonstrators representing the United American Indians of New England were arrested in downtown Plymouth, MA. when police confronted about 200 protestors trying to march through the center of Plymouth to call attention to the plight of indigenous people in America. Those arrested face charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly.
11/27/1997 Jesus Blancornelas, a prize-winning newspaper editor who had crusaded against narcotics traffickers, was seriously wounded in Tijuana, Mexico by gunmen who killed his bodyguard. One of the gunmen was also killed.
11/27/2001 Prince Walid bin Talal, 47, a billionaire investor and a prominent member of Saudi Arabia's royal family called for a transformation that would bring elections, ?“the faster the better,?” to a kingdom whose only bow to democracy had been the establishment of an appointed advisory council in 1992. In calling for change, Prince Walid made clear that what he had in mind was limited. He said the 120-member council should be chosen in elections that would be open, at least at first, to men only. The approach would be roughly similar to the one in place in Kuwait, which had an elected Parliament since 1961. Two of Saudi Arabia's other neighbors, Bahrain and Qatar, had also promised to hold elections by the end of next year. It is a sign of growing democratic experimentation in the Persian Gulf region, in which almost all power still lay in the hands of Kings, Emirs, Sheiks and Sultans. The Prince had previously waded into political controversy when he offered $10 million to NYC for victims of the World Trade Center disaster but also issued a press release saying American policy in the Middle East had helped to fan extremism, causing Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to reject his gift.
11/27/2001 US Representative Eva Clayton (D), 67, a 5-term House member from Warrenton, NC, who helped break state?’s glass ceiling for Blacks and women in politics, said she would retire next year from the US House while she was in good health and ?“on the top of my game. I am retiring from Congress, but not retiring from life.?” Her longtime political ally, State Senator Frank Ballance, said he was considering running for Clayton's seat.
11/27/2001 Newco, the newly created water utility joint venture serving the Carribean island of St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles, was pleased to learn that the he Dutch government had expressed its willingness to provide some US$26.2mn in grants to help finance potable water, sewage collection and treatment expansions for St. Maarten's Public Works Commission. The island's government, held the ?“golden share?” in Newco, vetoed any water or sewage collection rate increases to finance projects and Newco was not expected to register profits for at least 10 years. The St. Maarten government granted Newco a 10-year tax exemption on the condition that they profits were reinvested in the company and its infrastructure. St. Maarten the biggest island in the Dutch Windward Island chain, depended mostly on desalination plants for its drinking water. Corrosion problems in the existing drinking water network had exasperated an already short supply of drinking water, Intaquin said, while projected growth in hotel capacity and the tourism industry would make drinking water capacity expansion more urgent over the next few years. The island's sewage collection service was also inadequate, Intaquin added in a report, with many homes not connected. Sewage treatment was almost nonexistent, with most being dumped directly into the sea. The Netherlands' state utility NV Waterleidingmaatschappij Drenthe held a 50% interest in Intaquin (See: 8/2001).
11/27/2001 Will Smith urged top rappers to clean up their message, because youths around the globe are getting the wrong impression of Black America. Smith, a long-time critic of gangsta rap, was appalled to find dead rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls representing the Black youth of America in Africa during a recent visit. He explained, ?“I was in this village in Mozambique filming ALI and they had no water, no electricity and they spoke no English but I saw ?‘Tupac?’ and ?‘Biggie Smalls?’ written on the side of a shack. ?“That's the picture of young Blacks in America. Girls and guns and cars is the picture the world had of us and I'm uncomfortable with that. I'll never diss a brother who is trying to feed his kids but all I say is sprinkle a little bit of the other side of your personality in there. We are a diverse people.?”
11/27/2001 The ruling African National Congress (ANC) agreed in a reconciliation drive to share power at all levels of government with the party that imposed apartheid for more than 40 years. The ANC and the New National Party, formerly the Whites- only National Party, said their accord would enable the Nationalists to return to government as a junior partner. The accord followed the failure of a year-old alliance between the Nationalists and the bigger, White-led Democratic Party. It will allow the ANC and the Nationalists to take charge of the affluent Western Cape Province, a showcase for opposition social and economic policies. The original National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, jailed Black leaders, including Nelson Mandela and shunted many Black women and children to barren homelands where thousands died for want of decent food and medical care (See: 12/5/2001).
11/27/2002 Mr. Charles Ede died at the age of 57 in his beloved Canton, OH., where he had suffered a massive stroke 2 weeks ago. Prior to his death, Mr. Ede worked on several issues to benefit the 4th Ward, his ward, particularly generating new business and housing programs. He also worked with the mayor to create a community clinic program to benefit the city's lower-income residents. When he wasn't working, the devout Muslim enjoyed fishing, bowling, working on his computer and baby-sitting his grandchildren. But among his greatest loves was the newspaper he published, The Freedom Journal. The newspaper was created from his home, served the Black community and offered issues from an Black point of view. Mr. Ede, a ?“conservative?” Democrat, 1st served on the City Council in 1988 and continued for an additional 2 terms. He ran again in 1995 and won, serving from 1996 until he was defeated in 2000. He ran again in the 5/2001 primary but lost. Mr. Ede had planned of running again for the City Council, but next time as a Republican.
11/27/2002 The Lesotho Highlands Water Project a $8 billion scheme to ship water from the rugged peaks of Lesotho, the Roof of Africa, to the industrial heartland of South Africa seemed to exemplify the current stereotypes of major dams: massive, expensive, destructive, exploitative and corrosive, except that the highlands project was also the financial lifeline of this landlocked Kingdom, a dynamic source of money, energy and jobs in an otherwise medieval economy. But now the project was embroiled in one of the biggest corruption scandals in the checkered history of African development. The former CEO was in jail and a dozen multinational corporations faced bribery charges for feeding his Swiss bank accounts but a close look at Lesotho's experience suggested that big dams were not necessarily pure boondoggles. The project's water fueled growth in the vital Johannesburg area, which had an economic output exceeding the rest of southern Africa's. The project the sale of fresh water, ?“Lesotho's White Gold,?” the brochures called it, was pouring $20 million in annual royalties into the country's coffers, about 1/4 of its total exports. The project had supplied more than 7,000 jobs and all of Lesotho's electricity, while providing new health clinics, schools, sanitation facilities, roads and upgraded water-supply systems for 150 villages. It had promised full compensation for 30,000 residents affected by the dams, as well as training and aid to help them sustain themselves in the future.
11/27/2002 Police in the northeastern city of Shenyang arrested the flamboyant Chinese-born tycoon, Yang Bin, 39, named to head a groundbreaking free-trade enclave in neighboring North Korea, charging him with bribery, fraudulent schemes and illegally occupying land. Yang Bin, listed by Forbes magazine in 2001 as China's 2nd-richest man, clouded the future of the Sinuiju free trade area in North Korea, raising doubts that it will ever be built. More broadly, it heightens questions about the prospects for North Korea's incremental but palpable steps toward reform. Although it remains among the most closed societies in the world, North Korea had lately begun to tentatively engage the outside world. The establishment of the Sinuiju free trade zone, announced amid great fanfare in 9/2002, was aimed at bringing in foreign investment, concentrating it in a 50-square mile patch of land along China's border opposite the Chinese city of Dandong. In effect, North Korea was imitating the creation of the special economic zones that kicked off China's great economic expansion nearly 2 decades ago. Yang, a multimillionaire who held a Dutch passport and built his fortune trading orchids, was to head the project.
11/28/1775 Both free and enslaved Blacks were allowed to enlist under the rules of the new Continental Navy established and approved by he Continental Congress, after authorizing the construction of 2 warships on 10/13/1775 to defend against the British fleet.
11/28/1929 Berry Gordy, Jr., future Black-American businessman, founder and President of the Motown Empire one of the most successful Black-owned record company, was born in Detroit, MI.
11/28/1958 The African nation of Chad, Congo and & Mauritania became autonomous members within the French Community.
11/28/1960 The Islamic Republic of Mauritania gained its independence from France. Its capitol is Nouakchott.
11/28/1960 Black author Richard Wright, whose fiction, particularly Native Son and Black Boy, became classics of American literature, died in Paris, France at age 52 ( b: 9/1908, Roxie, MS).
11/28/1966 A coup occurred in Burundi overthrowing the monarchy and a republic was declared as a replacement form of government.
11/28/1981 Pam McAllister Johnson was named as publisher of Gannett's Ithaca (New York) Journal becoming the 1st Black woman to head a general circulation newspaper in the United States.
11/28/1992 Black South African militant gunmen attacked a ?“White?” country club, resulting in the death of 4 Whites and injuring about 20 other people in King William?’s Town.
11/28/1995 Burma?’s Aung San Suu Kyi informed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) that the National League for Democracy (NLD) was withdrawing from the National Convention and shortly afterwards senior SLORC officials warmed that the armed forces would ?“annihilate?” anyone disturbing national interests.
11/28/1997 Haiti will receive and the UN Security Council agreed to establish a 300-member international police mission to carry on its years-long campaign for democracy. The unanimous decision came 2 days before the last of 1,300 UN peacekeepers were to leave Haiti, ending a military presence that began in 3/1995 when the peacekeepers took over from an American force. ?“The government of Haiti is fast approaching full responsibility for public safety,?” said US Deputy Ambassador Peter Burleigh prior to the vote. The 300 police will remain in Haiti through 11/1998 to help professionalize the Haitian National Police. Most of the UN force will come from the US, Canada and France (See: 9/19/1994 and 11/30/1997).
11/28/2001 Northern Alliance Interior Minister Younus Qanooni rejected an international force to keep security in post-Taliban Afghanistan, saying the Alliance's own troops were sufficient. However, Qanooni said, if a more extensive security force was needed, it should be comprised of ethnic groups within Afghanistan. Many Afghan fighters were hostile to the idea of any international troops on their soil, recalling a long history of battling foreign occupiers, from the British Empire in the 19th century to the Soviets in the 20th. The issue of security was only 1 of 2 items to be decided at the UN-sponsored talks among 4 Afghan factions that will decide the war-torn country's political future. The other issue was an interim administration. Talks began on 11/27 outside Bonn.
11/28/2001 Puerto Rico has reactivated its observer status in the 14-member Caribbean Community, a regional trade bloc and a host of committees that sought to create regional approaches to economic development, environmental management, health and crime-fighting. Puerto Rico gained observer status in 1990, its participation in the regional grouping was suspended when the party favoring US statehood for the island was elected in 1992. The current government of Governor Sila Maria Calderon, an anti-statehood politician who took office in 1/2001, had been trying to reactivate Puerto Rico's links with the region, said Efrain Vazquez Vera, Puerto Rico's Auxiliary Undersecretary of State for International Affairs.
11/28/2001 A UN study of crime in Kenya's capital was issued and it indicated that the city's disparaging nickname, ?“Nairobbery,?” was not far from reality. More than a third of Nairobi's residents were robbed with a threat of force over the last year and half of those who live in the sprawling city frequently hear gunfire, the study said. Adding to the insecurity, an overwhelming 98% of the 8,621 Nairobi residents who took part in the survey said they thought the police were corrupt. Consequently, it appeared that most crime goes unreported. Even before the study, it was no secret that crime in Nairobi, where unemployment and poverty were at record levels, had grown out of control. In 1/2001, the UN downgraded the city's security status from B to C, which put it a notch below Bogot?¡ and Beirut. Researchers concluded that the level of danger on Nairobi's streets was comparable to that of Johannesburg in South Africa, where violence had become an everyday reality. Nairobi's criminals had become so brazen that they no longer seem to fear the police or prosecutors, the survey said.
11/28/2001 After 5 years of fits and starts, Vietnam joined the US in approving a far-reaching trade agreement that threw open its economy and brought an end to a final chapter of the war. The agreement was the last step in a long reconciliation that began with the lifting of an American trade embargo in 1994 and the opening of full diplomatic relations in 1995. ?“With this event, the process of normalizing relations between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the US has been fully realized,?” said Vu Khoan, Vietnam's Minister of Trade. From now on, Vietnam and America are just 2 countries with normal political and trade relations like any others. Sometimes it had seemed as though the Vietnam War were being played out all over again as agreements were reached and then followed by second thoughts. That light at the end of the tunnel would glimmer before disappearing again. Finally, after ratification last month by the US Congress, Vietnam's National Assembly voted, 278 to 85, to carry out the agreement. It was expected to take effect at the start of the year.
11/28/2001 When 7 members of Parliament died in a plane crash in 5/2001, few expected that replacing them would prompt a national political showdown that called into question, once again, the degree to which the Islamic Republic of Iran was a republic at all. More than 100 candidates signed up to run in the elections in Golestan Province, in northeastern Iran. But the Guardians Council, a conservative oversight body with the constitutional power to screen electoral candidates, rejected 55 of them. Most of those blacklisted were reformers who, like President Mohammad Khatami and the current Parliament's majority, advocated more government openness, the protection of individual rights, freer expression and more accountability to the people. Both Mr. Khatami and the Parliament were elected with wide popular support and they had regularly been at odds with the Guardians Council, which was seen as the arm of the country's religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ayatollah Khamenei appointed 6 of its 12 members and controlled the judiciary that nominated the others. Believing that they answered to a higher authority than the voters, the Ayatollah and other senior clerics seemed reluctant to accept any dilution of their near absolute power.
11/28/2001 Pre-Columbian America was not a disease-free paradise, in 1 remote tribal village high in the Peruvian Andes, for example, life was like this: Very few villagers were living past the age of 40. About 12% of the villagers were bent over with hunchbacks from TB of the spine. Perhaps 50% or more of the villagers had less severe TB in the lungs. Though most adults were only in their 20s and 30s, 11% of them suffered from arthritis. Most adults had terrible teeth or none at all. Both sexes suffered from scoliosis, a condition of crooked spines and from osteoporosis at much higher rates and at younger ages than in modern times. The grim picture was painted by 2 researchers who took X-rays to examine 205 intact pre-Columbian Chachapoya ?“Cloud people,?” mummies removed from nearby mountain burial chambers (See: 1475 and 11/1996).
11/29/1835 The Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi, meaning ?“Kindly and Virtuous?” started as a concubine in the court of Hsien Feng.
11/29/1864 At least 150-164 peaceful Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians, mainly women and children, were killed by the Colorado militia, as they stood beneath Old Glory and a white flag but were slaughtered anyway by the Colorado 1st and 3rd Volunteer Cavalries lead by Colonel John Covington at the Sand Creek Massacre. Survivors of the initial onslaught fled along the creek and tried to dig into the sand cliffs but were blasted mercilessly by the soldier?’s howitzers. The massacre led to 5 years of warfare on the Eastern Plains and to the removal of Indian tribes from most of the state. The US government was so ashamed of the massacre that Colorado was denied statehood 3 times.
11/29/1895 William Tubman, future Liberian statesman and President for 27 years (1944 - 1971), was born (d: 7/23/1971 at age 75).
11/29/1908 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., future Black-American civil rights leader and the 1st northern US Congressman (D-NYC, Harlem, 1945 - 1970), was born in New Haven, CT. (d: 4/4/1972 at age 63).
11/29/1908 Robert Sengstacke Abbott began publishing the Chicago Defender, it became one of the most influential Black newspapers ever printed.
11/29/1916 The "Military Occupation Of The Dominican Republic" was declared by the US.
11/29/1935 US Congressman Henry Plummer Cheatham, activist, only Black Republican (NC) in the 51st US Congress ( & 52nd 3/4/1889-3/3/93) and who introduced legislation to establish public schools for all Americans, died at age 77, Oxford, NC ( b: 12/27/1857, into slavery near Henderson, NC ).
11/29/1947 The UN General Assembly, passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews.
11/29/1966 While aboard the King of Burundi was deposed and the country became a Republic with Watusi/ Tutsi Colonel Michel Micombero as President. He was on record as being opposed to feudalism and tribal conflict.
11/29/1989 USAF Colonel Frederick D. Gregory became the 1st Black mission commander after completing his mission when the space shuttle Discovery returned to earth after sending 456 hours in space. Frederick D. Gregory was also the nephew of blood plasma pioneer, Dr. Charles R. Drew.
11/29/1996 The irony and symbolism of integration and its impact on historically Black colleges emerged on the football field when at the Bayou Classic, Gambling State University played Southern University in what was traditionally one of the biggest Black college matchups of the year. Both quarterbacks were White. Southern won for the 4th year in a row with a score of 17-12, before a majority Black audience of 71,586 people (See: 12/11/1997).
11/29/1997 Coleman Young, a Tuskegee Airman, a progressive, pro-labor politician and the former 1st Black Mayor of Detroit, who served 5 terms 1994 - 94, died in Detroit at age 79 (b: 5/24/1918, Tuscaloosa, AL).
11/29/1997 Another day began for the fresh-faced novice boy-monks of Jingzhen Temple in Xishuangbanna, a lush corner of southwestern China, rich with thick jungle and emerald rice paddies. The monks were Dais, the providence?’s largest ethnic minority who were more akin to people in neighboring Laos and Myanmar/Burma than to Han Chinese, China?’s majority. Three decades before, Mao Tse-tung?’s Cultural Revolution swept through the region?’s villages, as it did the rest of the country, attacking temples, and desecrating shrines. When to Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, normalcy returned and today many of the 500 or so temples echo with the chants of the young Buddhist monks.
11/29/1997 Iran released 496 Iraqi POWs, but Iraq?’s government called for the release of 17,597 other Iraqi who were captured by Iran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The war, which killed an estimated 1 million people, ended in 8/1988 with a cease-fire, but the 2 neighbors had not signed a peace treaty.
11/29/1997 Dr. Mark Mwandosya of Tanzania, Chairman of the Developing-Country Caucus at the Kyoto (Japan) Conference was provoked to countermeasures by the stance made by the US since the signing of a global climate treaty at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. ?“Very many of us are struggling to attain a decent standard of living our peoples,?” he said, ?“and yet we are constantly told that we must share in the effort to reduce emissions so that industrialized countries can continue to enjoy the benefits of their wasteful lifestyles.?” He pointed that rich countries were responsible for most emissions today, thus it was only fitting that the wealthy be the 1st to take legally binding steps to reduce them. He pointed out that 3rd World countries stand to be hurt worst by whatever climate changes resulted from the rich countries emissions. A recent study by the World Resources Institute, found that many key 3rd World countries, had cut or eliminated energy subsidies and as a result were emitting less carbon dioxide that they otherwise would have. Cutting the subsidies had raised energy costs and thereby discouraged the burning of coal and oil. The top 10 emitters of carbon dioxide in 1992, in millions of metric tons and tons per capita in descending order were: US, China, Russia, Japan, Germany, India, Ukraine, Britain, Canada and Italy.
11/29/1997 Zairean/Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila?’s office accused and arrested army commander Masasu Nindanga, a co-founder with Kabila of the ruling Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo, who had been detained along with his 70 personal guards of creating a personal militia, fraternizing with enemies of the state and detaining people unlawfully.
11/29/2001 Throughout 2001 Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members complained openly that President Bush had ignored them. The CBC Chairwoman at the time, Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), wrote in a letter on this date that she was ?“extremely disappointed that we have not heard any response from you, your Legislative Affairs office or your Scheduling Office on when such a meeting will take place.?” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) forwarded the letter to the National Newspaper Publishers Association in Washington. By the end of that year, the CBC had sent 4 letters asking President Bush to meet with them about issues like the US policy toward Haiti, the war against terrorism, the economic stimulus package, unemployment and civil liberties (See: 7/16/2003).
11/29/2001 Mr Akenten Appiah-Menkah, an industrialist, pointed out that this was the time for Ghanaians to push their brands by patronising made in Ghana goods. Mr Appiah- Menkah was speaking at the opening of ?“Grand Sales 2001" in Kumasi, being held under the theme: ?“Bringing buyers and sellers together.?” The week long fair was being organised by the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited in collaboration with the Association of Ghana Industries, National Board for Small-Scale Industries, Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The industrialist said that no country could survive without the business community. He said it was, therefore, a matter of regret that over the past 20 years Ghanaian businessmen were subjected to insults, were branded as thieves and criminals and attempts were made to kill all their businesses. The industrialist said it was to correct this unfortunate situation that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government had made the private sector the engine of growth. Mr Appiah-Menkah told industrialists that the quality of their product, its packaging, pricing and publicity needed to be considered if they were to compete favourably in the global market.
11/29/2001 After more than a year of talks, government and industry negotiators from dozens of countries agreed in Gaborone, Botswana on a framework for a system to certify legitimately traded diamonds and stamp out the market for stones mined by rebels in war zones throughout the African continent. With Angola still very much at war and Congo and Sierra Leone both far from lasting peace, the issue remained a pressing one. In the international furor that was building, no country stood to lose more than Botswana, the biggest producer of diamonds by value. Like its two neighbors, Namibia and South Africa, Botswana had used its diamond wealth to ensure a measure of stability and self-sufficiency rare on the Africa continent. Collectively, the 3 countries produced almost half of the world's diamonds. If the industry's image were to suffer because of conflict diamonds, which were estimated to account for 4 to 5% of the total trade, so too would the economies of all 3 countries. ?“Botswana is the world's most diamond-dependent country,?” the Foreign Minister, Lt. Gen. Mompati S. Merafhe, said. ?“We are not, as some would like to believe, a fabulously wealthy country, but what little we have, we owe significantly to diamond mining.?” With a third of its gross domestic product, half of its government revenue and 80% of its export earnings all derived from diamonds, Botswana could not afford to avoid this problem, however distant it may sometimes seem from this tranquil capital city.
11/29/2001 For the last decade, the agreement, the Andean Trade Preference Act, had helped Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru fight narcotics trafficking by lowering tariffs on flowers, clothing and other exports to the US. The aim was to bolster local economies and encourage local farmers to plant legitimate market crops instead of the coca and poppies used to make cocaine and opium. All 4 Andean nations had a lot riding on a renewal of the pact, which was set in place in 1991, during the 1st Bush administration, as part of the war against drugs and was due to expire on 12/4/2001. The leaders made it clear that if the agreement was not renewed, they would find it difficult to stabilize their economies and offer their citizens a viable alternative to drug trafficking. They also made reauthorization a test of the Bush administration's commitment to Latin America. In contrast to free-trade agreements, like the one the US had with Mexico and Canada, the Andean Trade Preference Act lowered tariffs only on exports to the US, not on imports from the US. That, Mr. Moore said, had hurt the textile industry without giving American workers a chance to increase sales to the South American countries and had not been effective in combating drugs.
11/29/2001 Ms. Benazir Bhutto, 48, was campaigning to be Prime Minister of Pakistan, where she no longer lived, in India, its archrival. She called on the Indian Prime Minister and his most powerful advisers. She spoke to the captains of industry, who zestfully applauded her. She fondly reminisced with courtly, retired Indian diplomats about old times when she was Prime Minister of Pakistan. Inheritor of a legendary political dynasty, Ms. Bhutto was a wanted woman in Pakistan, where she faced a raft of corruption charges. She had jetted to New Delhi, Washington, London and other capitals in a desperate effort to regain her good name and to convince the world that she was the best hope for a stable, democratic Pakistan powered by a free-market economy. She wanted to become Prime Minister of Pakistan for the 3rd time in elections that the military had scheduled for 10/2002. Her perennial rival, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, had been banished by the military to Saudi Arabia. But General Pervez Musharraf, transformed since the 9/11 attacks from a dictator scorned by the West to the darling of the American- led antiterror coalition, recently decreed that he would remain President even after the elections.
11/29/2001 A crucial bridge into northern Afghanistan from Uzbekistan remained closed, cutting off the most promising avenue for shipping in supplies. In a revealing reversal of fortunes, food deliveries have actually dropped since the Northern Alliance took Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif, the crossroads city that would become the hub for supplies across the northern half of Afghanistan. In the past 2 weeks, the tonnage delivered dropped to a pace less than half of what it had been in the previous 2 weeks. The main problem was insecurity. Towns and cities were so chaotic that relief agencies could not safely operate. Many roads were off limits because of lawlessness and banditry. And most foreign aid workers had yet to return to Afghanistan because their organizations feared for their safety, a fear underlined by the killings of 8 foreign journalists.
11/29/2002 Twenty-five of the 39 countries facing food shortages were in Africa, the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization said in its 11/2002 issue of ?“Foodcrops and Shortages,?” which was published 5 times a year. Angola* Internally displaced persons (IDPs); Burundi* Civil strife, IDPs; Cape Verde , Drought; Central Afr. Rep., Civil strife; Congo, Dem.Rep.* Civil strife, IDPs and refugees; Congo Rep. of* Civil strife, IDPs; C?´te d?’Ivoire, Civil strife, IDPs; Eritrea* Drought, IDPs, returnees; Ethiopia* Drought , IDPs; Guinea, IDPs and refugees; Kenya* Drought in parts; Lesotho, Adverse weather; Liberia* Civil strife, IDPs; Madagascar, Drought in parts, economic problems; Malawi, Adverse weather; Mauritania, Drought, irrigation water shortages; Mozambique, Drought in parts; Sierra Leone* Civil strife, IDPs; Somalia* Civil strife, drought in parts; Sudan* Civil strife in the south and east, drought in parts; Swaziland, Drought in parts; Tanzania, Drought in parts, refugees; Uganda, Civil strife, IDPs, drought in parts; Zambia, Drought in parts; Zimbabwe* Drought, economic problems. ASIA (6) Afghanistan* Effects of earlier drought and war; Georgia, Drought and input shortages; Iraq* Shortage of inputs, effects of earlier drought; Korea, DPR* Adverse weather, economic constraints; Mongolia* Harsh winters, drought; Tajikistan, Input and irrigation water shortages. LATIN AMERICA (6): El Salvador, Drought, earthquakes, international coffee crisis; Guatemala, International coffee crisis; Haiti, Drought, flooding; Honduras, International coffee crisis; Nicaragua, International coffee crisis and Paraguay, Drought. EUROPE: Russian Federation (Chechyna), Civil strife and Fed. Rep. Yugoslavia (Serbia & Montenegro), Refugees.
11/30/1782 All Blacks who had joined the British ranks prior to this date were freed by the British in NY.
11/30/1869 Black Republican John Roy Lynch (R) was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives.
11/30/1912 Gordon Parks, Sr, future Black-American writer, filmmaker and photographer, was born in Fort Smith, KS.
11/30/1924 Shirley Anita St. Hill (Chisholm), future New York State Assemblyperson and 1st Black-American woman elected as a US Representative (D-NYC, 1968-82 ) and will run for President in 1972, was born in Brooklyn, NY.
11/30/1930 Mary Harris Jones, female American labor organizer known as ?“Mother Jones,?” died at age 100.
11/30/1948 The Negro National League (Professional Baseball) was disbanded due to the integration of the major league baseball teams.
11/30/1949 The army of the Peoples Republic of China captured Chungking.
11/30/1952 Cherokee Private 1st Class Charles George became the 5th and last Native-American winner in the 20th century and was awarded the Medal of Honor during battle when he threw himself upon a grenade and smothered it with his body while saving the lives of his comrades, posthumously awarded in 1954 (Awarded: 3/18/193254) (b:8/23/1932, Cherokee, NC).
11/30/1953 Albert Michael Espy, future 1st Black-American US Congressman (D-MS) to represent Mississippi since Reconstruction and future US Secretary of Agriculture, was born in Yazoo City, MS.
11/30/1962 U Thant of Burma was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations.
11/30/1966 Barbados a former British colony became independent and became a parliamentary democracy; independent sovereign state within the Commonwealth (See: 1627).
11/30/1975 The country of Dahomey became the People's Republic of Benin.
11/30/1997 Haitians, after having their democracy restored but still suffering from political and social turmoil bade adieu to UN peacekeepers as they ended their 3-year mission in that Caribbean nation. For many Haitians, it?’s still difficult to find peace and prosperity in the Caribbean nation where many went to bed hungry and armed gangsters murdered 60 people last month. The peacekeepers helped Haiti hold peaceful elections in 1995 that saw Jean-Bertrand Aristide replaced by his handpicked successor, President Ren?© Preval. Some 500 noncombat US troops remained in Haiti to build roads, bridges and wells (See: 9/19/1994 and 11/28/1997).
11/30/1997 Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan left on a 52-nation world tour, with stops in Iran, Iraq, China, North Korea and Cuba. He said he had been to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to visit Israel, but didn?’t know whether the Israeli government would grant him a visa. He also said that Saddam Hussein was more popular in his country than President Clinton was in America.
11/30/1997 Honduran Carlos Flores Facussse, a 47-year-old newspaper owner, claimed victory in the Presidential election, defeating Nora Gunera de Melgar, widow of a former military President. But neither of the 2 main candidates made fighting poverty a priority in the campaign in one of the poorest countries in Latin America, where 45% of the people were unemployed and/or underemployed. In a way, it mattered little, Honduras?’ 2 main political parties have alternated in power since 1906. When the new President takes office on 1/27/1998, it will be the 5th consecutive transfer of power between civilians in a region known for coups and dictatorships.
11/30/1997 Hundreds of thousands of regular army troops and female and male militia volunteers engaged in military and civil defense exercises across Cuba, on National Defense Day.
11/30/1997 Former General Colin Powell took issue with his Republican Party?’s opposition to US President Clinton?’s nominee to be Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, saying Bill Lann Lee should be confirmed. Lee?’s confirmation had effectively died in the US Senate?’s Judiciary Committee, where all but 1 Republican on the panel, PA. Senator Arlen Specter, opposed Lee on grounds that the CA.-based civil rights advocate supported quotas as a means to advance affirmation rights action programs for minorities.
11/30/1997 Ecuadorans voted for a temporary National Assembly that would reform the Constitution amid a climate of apathy and fears of low voter turnout. Voters chose from 1,500 candidates from 7 political parties and 22 independent movements to fill 70 seats in the new Assembly. Among the Constitutional reforms the new Assembly would debate were the dissolution of Congress, the creation of a Senate and setting the rules for the privatization of state enterprises.
11/30/1997 Iranian President Mohammad Khatami called on the country?’s Islamic government to promote equal rights for women, saying that religion should not be used to deny them opportunities, told a women?’s conference in Tehran. The moderate President?’s stance on women and his calls for more freedom for young people were instrumental in his overwhelming election victory in May against Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, the more conservative Parliament Speaker.
11/30/1997 China began a 2nd round of land mine clearance on its border with Vietnam, where the 2 countries fought a brief but bloody war in 1979. The latest operation was intended to clear more than 40 square miles of minefields in Guangxi Providence by 1999.
11/30/1997 Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made a defiant television address to the nation, accusing both the Chief Justice and President of conspiring to bring down his embattled 10-month-old government. The feud has all paralyzed the government for 2 weeks, heightening fears that Pakistan?’s powerful military might stand in to end the dispute by once again seizing control, something it has done repeatedly in the past.
11/30/2001 Robert Tools, a 59-year-old, who became the 1st person with a self-contained artificial heart, after approximately 151 day on the heart, died (See: 7/2/2001).
11/30/2001 With opposition forces reportedly on the verge of laying siege to the city of Kandahar, the last major bastion of Taliban military power, a key Pashtun tribal leader told the Northern Alliance to stay away from southern Afghanistan. ?“If we want their help, we'll ask for it,?” a spokesman for Gul Agha, the former Governor of Kandahar, told Reuters. ?“We don't want anybody from any other province here.?” The Pashtun tribes that dominate southern Afghanistan deeply mistrusted the Northern Alliance forces, which consisted mainly of ethnic Tajik and Uzbeks. Pakistani officials had been negotiating with the anti-Taliban leaders, most of whom were loyal to Mr. Agha, in a halting effort to draw them into a makeshift ?“Southern Alliance?” that would duplicate the coordination among anti-Taliban forces in the north.
11/30/2001 Vietnamese Communist Party Chief Nong Duc Manh at the start of an official visit to China signed a pair of agreements strengthening their economic cooperation and providing easy credit to Vietnam.
11/30/2001 There were high hopes and protests at a ceremony in Arusha, Tanzania, to re-establish the East African Community, nearly a quarter-century after the economic and political union was disbanded because of regional strife, as President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda inaugurated a joint legislative assembly to handle regional policy matters and a court to settle cross-border disputes. Initially the 3 countries, whose populations total 80 million people, intended to reduce trade barriers and slash bureaucracies now interfering with regional growth. In the future, the leaders envisioned a regional stock exchange and a unified currency to give East Africa more clout on the continent and throughout the world. At the creation of the group, in 1967, all 3 countries were still shaking off the vestiges of colonialism. Back then, Kenya was by far the economic powerhouse of the 3. But now World Bank statistics showed that Tanzania and Uganda each attracted more than $400 million in foreign investment between 1995 and 1998, compared with $65 million in Kenya. Still, fears lingered that Kenya would dominate the community and flood the regional markets with its goods. Some backers of the group were pushing to expand it. Rwanda and Burundi, both devastated by years of civil strife, had filed applications to join. Outside the meeting, women demonstrated against Kenya's decision to reduce the number of assembly seats set aside for Kenyan women to 2 from 3. Despite an agreement among the countries to designate a third of the 27-member assembly seats for women, Kenyan President Moi backed out of the deal and urged women to compete for representation with men.
11/30/2001 The people of Isfahan, Iran were inconsolable. They talked as if a lover had left them, but it was worse. Lovers could be replaced. Their river, the Zaindeh River, or Zaindeh-Rud, as it is called in Persian, could not. The drought that had devastated southeastern Iran and Afghanistan had wreaked its own peculiar havoc on Isfahan, in north-central Iran. For 2 years, its river had been bone dry, except for brief periods when man or nature managed to make the water flow again. Where once water beckoned, there was only a sandy, rocky plain stretching as far as the eye could bear to look. The river's arid turn had some serious consequences. A power station had to be shut down. A 100,000 farmers were out of work, their fields parched. Water was being rationed in the city; for the poor in particular, drinking water could be hard to find. But the identity crisis could not be discounted. Zaindeh-Rud meant ?“the river that gives continual life,?” and once it did. It irrigated fields upstream and irrigated the city's social life as well. Couples walked along its grassy banks, catching their reflections in the water. Children took off their shoes and waded on the cobblestone ledge running beside the brick and stone bridges that arched over the river. Boats moved dreamily along the surface. Now the bridges seemed like redundancies, crossing over a stretch of land that people just walked across. There were also worries that the bridges, constructed to be lubricated by water, might crumble. Drought was certainly the most to blame for the river's disappearance. Poor water management, with much of the water used for irrigation lost through poor pipes and drainage, had not helped. But residents seeking a scapegoat easier to punish than Mother Nature had settled on their President, Mohammad Khatami. They accused him of diverting the river to his home province, Yezd (See: 1640(?)).
11/30/2003 Members of a support group for victims of apartheid disrupted a ceremony held in their honor to press their demands for long-promised reparations payments. About 300 members of the Khulumani group, led by veteran anti-apartheid activist Shirley Gunn, forced their way into the VIP tent during the ?“healing ceremony?” in Cape Town?’s Company Gardens. After about 20 minutes, the group agreed to take their seats outside in the scorching heat. Nearly a decade after apartheid?’s end, the government on 11/17/03 began issuing one-time payments of $4,400 each to 22,000 victims of gross human rights abuses who testified before South Africa?’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The payments, totaling $97 million, fell far short of the $441 million recommended by the Commission headed by Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
11/30/2003 Simon Nyandwi, appointed Interior Minister and Onesime Nduwimana, the new Communications Minister and government spokesperson, arrived in the capitol, Bujumbura, from Tanzania and Germany respectively, to take their seats in President Domitien Ndayizeye's cabinet under a power-sharing deal to end a decade of bloody fighting. They both spent 8 years in exile. Ndayizeye appointed 4 ministers from the main Hutu rebel group, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), on 11/23/03 as part of a 3-year transition to democracy, aiming to give Hutus more jobs in the Tutsi-dominated government ahead of elections. Government sources said the 2 ministers were expected to attend their 1st cabinet meeting on 12/1/03. The government was still battling the Forces for the National Liberation (FNL) rebel group, which had refused to join the peace process and denounced the government?’s deal with the FDD to end a conflict that had killed an estimated 300,000 people. Regional leaders had given the FNL 3 months to join the peace process or be branded outcasts.
11/30/2003 Henry J. Lyons, 61, walked out of prison that morning and headed directly back to the pulpit, telling worshippers he had erred but that time behind bars helped renew his faith. Lyons served nearly 5 years on grand theft and racketeering charges for using his former role as President of the National Baptist Convention to steal millions of dollars to finance his lavish lifestyle. The scheme fell apart after Lyons?’ wife set a fire at a home he had secretly bought with his mistress. Lyons' fall came after his wife, Deborah, set fire to a $700,000 waterfront home he co-owned with another woman, Bernice Edwards, in 7/1997. Lyons and his wife divorced earlier this year; Edwards died in prison in 5/2003 of natural causes. Lyons, the former pastor of Bethel Metropolitan Baptist Church, bilked $4 million from companies doing business with the National Baptist Convention, one of the nation's largest Black church organizations. Lyons would remain on probation for the next 3 years on federal charges of bank fraud, tax evasion and still owed $2.5 million in restitution. He said he would meet with federal authorities to work out payback terms.
11/30/2003 Don McKinnon, New Zealand, the commonwealth secretary-general, denied that the Zimbabwe crisis had caused a Black-White divide in the 54-nation grouping of mainly former British colonies. Zimbabwe was suspended from the group last year after charges that President Robert Mugabe, rigged his re-election. McKinnon had led a group of mainly White members including Britain and Australia in seeking to maintain sanctions. Several African Commonwealth members had sought to have Zimbabwe invited to the commonwealth?’s 12/5-8/03 summit in Nigeria. Those efforts failed last week when the summit?’s host, Nigerian President Obasanjo, said Mugabe would not get an invitation. Diplomatic sources said that Sri Lanka had named Lakshman Kadirgamar, the former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister to challenge New Zealander McKinnon for the secretary-general's post, a move that one diplomat linked to the controversy over Zimbabwe. Another source said the nomination of was apparently backed by South Africa, which had clashed with Britain and other Western nations over Zimbabwe. McKinnon said he had heard nothing official on President Thabo Mbeki's reported support for Kadirgamar. McKinnon said he was confident of being re-elected and that Sri Lanka had indicated to him that it would support his reelection. ?“But this is politics,?” he added.
11/30/2004 Kweisi Mfume, the President and Chief Executive fficer of the NAACP resigned, effective 1/1/2005, after nearly 9 years as head of the nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization. The NAACP was established in 1909, claimed a membership of 500,000. It had 2,200 adult branches and 1,700 youth and college chapters. The NAACP will turn to a businessman to lead the civil rights groups, the NAACP's Board of Directors will announce on 6/25/2005, that Bruce S. Gordon, a retired Verizon executive, will be its next President.
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