Black History on March 25th

1807 - The British Parliament abolishes the African slave trade. Although slavery was abolished within England in 1772, it was still allowed in the British colonies, as was the slave trade. The continued slave trade was not only accepted, but considered essential to the power and prosperity of the British Empire. English slave-merchants made fortunes carrying slaves from Afric to the British colonies in North America and the Caribbean, and many of England's industries, notably textiles and sugar refining, depended on raw materials produced by slave labor on colonial plantations. Still, there were opponents, and in 1787, they launched a nationwide campaign to seek the abolition of the slave trade.

1843 - African American explorer Dodson sets out in search of the Northwest Passage.

1910 - The Liberian Commission recommends financial aid to Liberia and the establishment of a U.S. Navy coaling station in the African country.

1931 - Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist, militant African American rights and anti-lynching advocate, and a founder of the NAACP, joins the ancestors in Chicago at the age of 78.

1931 - Nine African American youths are arrested in Scottsboro, Alabama, for allegedly raping two white women. Although they will be quickly convicted, in a trial that outraged African Americans and much of the nation, the case will be appealed and the "Scottsboro Boys" will be retried several times.

1939 - Toni Cade Bambara is born in New York City. She will become a noted writer of such fiction as "Gorilla, My Love," and "The Salt Eaters."

1942 - Aretha Louise Franklin is born in Memphis, Tennessee. She will be abandoned by her mother when she was 6, and raised by her father, the Reverend C. L. Franklin, who is one of the most famous black ministers in the North, and her aunt, the legendary gospel singer Clara Ward. She will grow up singing in her father's New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan. Family friends Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke will encourage her recording career, and when Columbia Records producer John Hammond first hears the 18-year-old, he calls her "an untutored genius, the best natural singer since Billie Holiday." It will not be until her move from Columbia's pop/jazz orchestrations to Atlantic Records' soulful, Rhythm and Blues style, in 1966, that her career skyrockets. Under the auspices of Jerry Wexler, she will sing fierce, frantic hits like "I Never Loved a Man," "Respect," "Natural Woman," and "Chain of Fools." In 1968, she will make the cover of Time magazine. From her first singing experiences in her father's church through a singing career and 21 gold records, she will earn the title, "Queen of Soul." She will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

1965 - The Selma-to-Montgomery march ended with rally of some fifty thousand at Alabama capitol. One of the marchers, a white civil rights worker named Viola Liuzzo, is shot to death on U.S. Highway 80 after the rally by white terrorists. Three Klansmen are convicted of violating her civil rights and sentenced to ten years in prison.

1967 - Debi Thomas is born. After being raised in San Jose, California by her mother(who shuttled her back and forth between home, school and practice at the rate of 3,000 miles per month), she will become the first African American to win the world figure skating championship (1986). She will later become the first African American to win a medal in the Winter Olympics (Bronze Medal in Figure Skating - February 27, 1988).

1975 - Salem Poor, who fought alongside other colonists during the Battle of Bunker Hill, is honored as one of four "Contributors to the Cause," a commemorative issue of the U.S. Postal Service.

1991 - Whoopi Goldberg wins the Academy Award for best actress in a supporting role for "Ghost." Also winning an Oscar is Russell Williams II, for best sound editing for the movie "Dances with Wolves." It is Williams's second Oscar in a row (the first was for "Glory"), a record for an African American.

1994 - American troops complete their withdrawal from Somalia.

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