On This Day In Black History...

• 1854 ~ Famous “fugitive” Slave Anthony Burns, who escaped from Alexandria VA at age 19, was arrested in Boston. His "capture" tested the authority of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act that required all states to cooperate in returning escaped Slaves, even when captured in northern states were slavery had been abolished. Burns was returned to slavery but his case so outraged Bostonian Abolitionists, that his freedom was eventually purchased for $1300. Burns returned to Boston, later received an education at Oberlin College in Ohio and ultimately became a preacher before emigrating to Canada


• 1856 ~ The Pottawatomie Massacre, led by John Brown, occurred. in Franklin County, KS. A pro-slavery settlement was attacked by an anti-slavery group


• 1887 ~ Elijah McCoy patents lubricator for Safety Valves


• 1910 ~ Walter M. Hard, a young Black barber, invents and patents a device that tremendously improved trolley car service


• 1944 ~ Patricia Louise Holte, PATTI LABELLE, is born in Philadelphia, Pa. HAPPY B-DAY Ms Patti!!!!


• 1951 DC!!! ~ Racial segregation in Washington, D.C. (AKA Chocolate City) restaurants ruled illegal by Municipal Court of Appeals. 1951, no so very long ago... I'm Just Sayin'...


• 1974 ~ Duke Ellington dies at the age of 75