Today In Black History...

On this date in 1906 Alpha Phi Alpha was founded on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. It was created by seven men who recognized the need for a strong bond of Brotherhood among African descendants in this country. The visionary founders, known as the "Jewels" of the Fraternity, are Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry ChAPman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle, and Vertner Woodson Tandy. Famous Alpha brothers include W.E.B. DuBois, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Fredrick Douglass, Edward Brooke, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Young, William Gray, Paul Robeson, Donny Hathaway, Lionel Richie, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Jesse Owens, and Eddie Robinson.

On this date in 1969 Moneta Sleet Jr became the first black to win the Pulitzer Prize for photography. Sleet who worked for Ebony Magazine would be known for his famous shot of Dr. King's grieving widow Coretta and youngest daughter Bernice.

Also on this date in 1969, Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and Mark Clark, a fellow member were killed (while sleeping) by Chicago police. The attack, aided by the help of an infiltrator, was masterminded by the city police force and the FBI's powerful counter-intelligence program(COINTEL-PRO).

The panthers left alive, including Deborah Johnson, Hampton's girlfriend, who was eight months pregnant at the time, were arrested and charged with attempting to murder the police. Afterwards, ballistic evidence revealed that only one bullet had been fired by the Panthers whereas nearly a hundred came from police guns.

After the resignation of President Richard Nixon, the Senate Intelligence Committee conducted a wide-ranging investigation of America's intelligence services. Frank Church of Idaho, the chairman of the committee, revealed in April, 1976 that William O'Neal, Hampton's bodyguard, was a FBI agent-provocateur who, days before the raid, had delivered an apartment floor-plan to the Bureau with an "X" marking Hampton's bed. Ballistic evidence showed that most bullets during the raid were aimed at Hampton's bedroom.

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