Black History on May 22dn

1848 - Slavery is abolished on the French island of Martinique. Abolition will create a shortage of labor in Martinique given many former slaves preferred not to work in the sugar cane plantations. To solve the problem, indentured servants will be brought from China and India.

1863 - The War Department establishes the Bureau of Colored Troops and launches an aggressive campaign for the recruitment of African American soldiers.

1940 - Bernard Shaw is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will become a journalist and the principal Washington anchor for Cable News Network, where he will be widely respected for his coverage of world summit meetings, the historic student demonstrations in Beijing, Presidential primaries and elections, and the Gulf War.

1941 - Paul Winfield is born in Los Angeles, California. He will become an actor and will star in the movies "Tyson," "Breathing Lessons," "Carbon Copy," "Cliffhanger," "Dennis the Menace," "Presumed Innocent," "Sounder," "The Terminator," and "Star Trek 2." He will join the ancestors on March 7, 2004 after succumbing to a heart attack.

1948 - Harlem Renaissance poet and author Claude McKay joins the ancestors in Chicago, Illinois at the age of 58. His novel "Home to Harlem" (1928) became the first best-seller written by an American of African descent.

1959 - Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African American major general in the U.S. Air Force. In doing so, he improves upon the accomplishment of his father, Davis Sr., who was the first African American general in the U.S. Army.

1961 - The Attorney General orders two hundred additional U.S. Marshals to Montgomery, Alabama. This is in addition to the four hundred U.S. marshals already dispatched to Montgomery to keep order in the Freedom Rider controversy.

1961 - Ernie K-Doe, Ernest Kador Jr., joins the growing list of "One Hit Wonders" -- recording artists who had only one hit. The song, "Mother-In-Law", is Ernie's one hit -- and a number one tune on the nation's pop music charts.

1966 - Bill Cosby, star of "I Spy," receives an Emmy for best actor in a dramatic series, the first African American in the category. He will earn more than four Emmys.

1967 - Langston Hughes, noted poet, joins the ancestors in New York City. He was the author of the poetry collections "The Weary Blues," "Not Without Laughter," "The Way of White Folks," the autobiographies "The Big Sea" and "I Wonder as I Wander, and plays and newspaper series. Hughes's ashes will be buried at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.

1970 - Naomi Campbell is born in London, England. She will be discovered in a shopping mall when she is 15 years old. She will become a super model and will open a chain of "Fashion Cafe'" establishments along with models Claudia Schiffer, Elle MacPherson, and Christy Turlington.

1994 - A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti, led by the United States, goes into effect to punish Haiti's military rulers for not reinstating the country's ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

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