SCOTTSBORO BOYS OCTOBER 23 1775—The Continental Con­gress approves a resolution barring free Blacks from the army fighting for American independence from England. The resolution came even though many free Blacks were already fighting in the war. The motive behind the resolution came from Southern slave colo­nies which feared that by fight­ing in the war for American in­dependence, Blacks would also demand an end to slavery. 1911—The National Urban League is formed. Next only to the NAACP, it becomes the sec­ond oldest and second largest Black self-help organization in America. It grew out of the spon­taneous 20th-Century Freedom Movement for freedom and op­portunity that came to be called the Black Migrations. Central to the organization’s founding were two remarkable people: Mrs. Ruth Standish Baldwin and Dr. George Edmund Haynes, who would become the Com­mittee’s first executive secre­tary. 1947—The NAACP files an “Appeal To The World” with the newly found United Nations concerning racial injustice in America. For its day, the filing was a bold move on the part of the NAACP and it angered many liberal and conservative Whites. OCTOBER 24 1892—More than 25,000 Black workers are said to have joined a workers strike in New Orleans to protest working con­ditions, lynchings and other so­cial ills. 1935—Fascist Italy invades Ethiopia, at the time, one of only two independent countries in Africa. U.S. Blacks were among thousands protesting world­wide. Powerful Harlem, N.Y. Pastor Adam Clayton Powell Sr. was among those seeking aid for Ethiopia. Ethiopian Em­peror Haile Selassie spoke at his church. 1935—“Mulatto” opens on Broadway in New York City. The play, written by famed Black poet Langston Hughes, became the first long-run Black play on Broadway.   1948—Kweisi Mfume is born Frizzel Gray in Baltimore, Md. He became a congressman, head of the NAACP but later lost a bid for a seat in the U.S. Senate. 1964—The African nation of Zambia becomes independent from White colonial rule. OCTOBER 25 1940—The Black newspaper owners group—the NNPA (Na­tional Newspaper Publishers Association) is founded. 1940—Benjamin O. Davis Sr. becomes the first Black general in the U.S. Army. 1958—An estimated 10,000 students led by Jackie Robin­son, Harry Belafonte, and labor leader A. Phillip Randolph, par­ticipate in a youth march for integrated schools in Washing­ton, D.C. 1976—One-time racist Gov. George Wallace grants a full pardon to Clarence “Willie” Norris—the last known survivor of the nine “Scottsboro Boys.” The group had been framed in a 1931 conviction for allegedly raping two White women. 1994—Apparently believing it would be easy to frame a Black man for the crime, Susan Smith—a White woman from Union, S.C.—claims that a Black carjacker had driven off with her two sons. Her story became a national sensation but it later fell apart. She eventually con­fessed to drowning the children and was convicted of murder. OCTOBER 26 1749—The British parliament legalizes slavery in the Amer­ican colony, which would be­come known as Georgia. 1806—Benjamin Banneker dies at 74. He had become a recognized inventor and scien­tist. He also completed the de­sign and layout of Washington, D.C. after Pierre Charles L’En­fant returned to France. 1868—B.F. Randolph, a prom­inent Black politician in South Carolina after the Civil War, is assassinated. He was believed to have been killed by former Confederate soldiers seeking to re-establish White racist rule in the state via terrorist organiza­tions such as the Ku Klux Klan. 1872—Inventor T. Marshal patents the fire extinguisher. 1911—Famed gospel singer Mahalia Jackson is born (1911- 1972) in New Orleans, La. She is generally considered to be the greatest gospel singer who ever lived. OCTOBER 27 1891—Inventor P.B. Downing patents the street letter mailbox whose basic design remains in use today. Not much is known about Downing. 1960—President John F. Ken­nedy intervenes to get Martin Luther King Jr. released from the Georgia State Prison in Re­idsville where he had been im­prisoned because of his civil rights activities. The Kennedy action endeared him to Black voters. 1981—Former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young is elected mayor of Atlanta, Ga. becoming city’s second Black mayor. OCTOBER 28 1798—Levi Coffin (White) is born in the slave state of North Carolina but becomes a strong opponent of slavery. He and his wife Catherine are credited with being among the original found­ers of the “Underground Rail­road”—the system of transports and safe houses that enabled Blacks to escape slavery in the South to freedom in the North. OCTOBER 29 1929—The Stock Market col­lapses ushering in the Great De­pression bringing about Black unemployment rates ranging from 25 to 40 percent. The ef­fects of the Great Depression would last until the start of World War II which created massive war industry jobs and a second mass migration of Blacks from the South to the industrial North.   1994—Famed dancer Pearl Primus dies. She blended Afri­can and Caribbean dance and music with Black American tra­ditions of blues, jazz and the jitterbug to form a new vibrant dance form. She formed a dance troupe and she personally ap­peared in such early Broadway hits as “Showboat” and “Emper­or Jones.” Primus was known for her amazingly high leaps. In 1991, the first President Bush awarded her the National Medal of Arts. 2009—A report is published suggesting that the old self-hate mantra of “I am Black enough; I don’t need any sun­shine” could be shortening the lives of African Americans. Dr. Jonathan Mansbach’s report found, among other things, that American Blacks are not get­ting enough sunshine or more specifically, vitamin D—the sun­shine vitamin. Mansbach dis­covered, for example, that an astonishing 90 percent of Black children were vitamin D defi­cient. Vitamin D deficiency can contribute to various cancers, diabetes and weak bones The post This Week In Black History October 23-29, 2024 appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.