On February 9, 1944, African American author, poet, and speaker Alice Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia. She attended college at Spelman and Sarah Lawrence Universities respectively. Her writings mainly focused on magnifying the struggles of poor and oppressed African American women of the early 20th century. Ms. Walker won the American Book Award and the coveted Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for her best known work, the novel The Color Purple. Last year, film director Pratibha Parmar began shooting a documentary about Walker’s life called Beauty In Truth.
– ShaBe Allah
On this date:
1964- Arthur Ashe, a professional tennis player from Richmond, Virginia, became the first African American to become a member of the U.S. Davis Cup team. He is also the only black man to win the Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open.
1971- Professional black baseball player Leroy “Satchel” Paige was elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. As one of the best pitchers in the history of baseball, Paige pitched in both the Negro Leagues and Major League Baseball, but because of segregation, became a rookie in MLB at the seasoned age of 42.
1987- Media powerhouse, talk show host, actress, and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey aired the critically acclaimed episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show from Forsyth County, Georgia, where no Black people had been allowed to live since 1912.
1995- Temple, Texas native Bernard Harris, Jr., became the first Black astronaut to perform a spacewalk during his mission as the Payload Commander on the STS-63, the first flight of the new joint Russian-American space program.
2006- The Supreme Council of Antiquities(SCA) of Egypt announced the discovery of a new tomb in the Valley of the Kings. It was the first tomb to be found in the Valley since the discovery of King Tutankhamun.
