November 22nd

November 22^nd in Black History

1865.  The Mississippi legislature enacted “Black Codes” that restricted the rights and freedom of movement of free Blacks. The Black Codes enacted in Mississippi and other Southern states virtually re-enslaved the freedmen. In some states any White could arrest any Black for virtually any reason. In other states minor officials could arrest black "vagrants" and "refractory and rebellious Negroes" and force 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; in South Carolina, blacks had to get a special license to work outside the domestic and farm laborer categories.

1871.  Louisiana's first Black Lieutenant Governor, Oscar J. Dunn dies suddenly in the midst of a bitter struggle for control of the state government.  The prevailing suspicion was that he was poisoned.
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/dunn-oscar-j-ca-1825-1871


1884.  The Black Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest continually published non-church newspaper was founded by Christopher J. Perry.
http://www.phillytrib.com/tribune/

1893.  Alrutheus Ambush Taylor was born in Washington D.C. He earned a B.A. degree from the University of Michigan in 1916, and a PhD from Harvard in 1935. He was a brilliant historian, who published three books on the history of Blacks during reconstruction.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2715852

1908.  Frank Mann was born in Houston, Texas. After receiving a mechanical engineering degree from UCLA, he went to work for the military, where he became one of their best pilots and engineers. He helped create a lot of the weapons and technology of the Second World War. He was the primary flight instructor of the Tuskegee Airmen, and fought to get them modern planes after the government insisted on equipping them with out-dated aircraft.
After the war, Mann was instrumental in designing the first Buick LeSabre sedan and the first communications satellite launched for commercial use. 

http://www.aaregistry.com/detail.php?id=453

1942.  Guion S. Bluford, Jr. is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, PA. He will become the first Black American in Space.

http://www.thespaceagency.org/bios/bluford.html

Note: the first Black person in space was not American. That honor went to  Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez of Cuba who went into orbit on September 18, 1980.

http://nylatinojournal.com/home/did_you_know../people/arnaldo_tamayo-mendez.html

1986.  George Branham, became the first  Black American to win a Professional Bowlers Association, (PBA) championship.

1986.  20-year-old Mike Tyson became the youngest world heavyweight boxing champion after knocking out Trevor Berbick at 2:35 in the second round, in Las Vegas.

1989.  Col. Frederick D. Gregory became the first Black American to command a spaceship when he guided the space shuttle Discovery into orbit with four other astronauts aboard.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/gregory-fd.html