On THIS date in black history

February 5

1866 - The distribution of public land and confiscated land to freedmen and loyal refugees in forty acre lots is offered in an amendment to the Freedmen's Bureau bill by Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. The measure is defeated in the House by a vote of 126 to 37. An African American delegation, led by Frederick Douglass calls on President Johnson and urges ballots for former slaves. The meeting ends in disagreement and controversy after Johnson reiterates his opposition to African American suffrage. I want my 40 acres.

1934 - Henry (Hank) Aaron is born in Mobile, Alabama. He holds the record for runs batted in with 2297, and his a Gold Glove Winner in 1958, 1959, and 1960. In April 8, 1974, he hit a 385-foot home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers, surpassing Babe Ruth's record of 714 career home runs. He ended his career with 755 home runs.

1941 - Barrett Strong is born in West Point, Mississippi. He became a Rhythm and Blues singer best known for his recording of "Money (That's What I Want)." He was also be a prolific songwriter, responsible for hits such as "Just My Imagination," "Papa Was A Rolling Stone," and "Ball of Confusion." He received a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song for co-writing "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone."

1956 - L.R. Lautier becomes the first African American to be admitted to the National Press Club.

1958 - Clifton W. Wharton, Sr. becomes the first African American to head an American diplomatic mission in Europe when he is confirmed as minister to Romania.

1962 - A suit seeking to bar Englewood, New Jersey, from maintaining "racial segregated" elementary schools, is filed in United States District Court.

1968 - Students in Orangeburg, South Carolina try to end the discriminatory practices of a local bowling alley. Their confrontation with police and the National Guard, and the subsequent death of three students, creates widespread outrage among students on campuses across the South.

1969 - Cinque Gallery is incorporated by African American artists Romare Bearden, Ernest Crichlow, and Norman Lewis. Located in the SoHo district of New York City, the nonprofit gallery's mission is to assist in the growth and development of minority artists and to end the cycle of exclusion of their work from the mainstream artistic community.

1972 - Robert Lewis Douglas, founder, owner and coach of the New York Renaissance is the first African American inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. The New York Renaissance was an African American team that won 88 consecutive games in 1933.

1977 - Sugar Ray Leonard defeats Luis Vega in 6 rounds in his first professional fight.

1989 - Kareem Abdul-Jabar becomes the first NBA player to score 38,000 points.

1994 - White supremacist Byron de la Beckwith is finally convicted of Medger Evers' murder, more than thirty years after Evers was shot in the back from ambush. After deliberating for seven hours, a jury of eight African Americans and four whites convicted 73-year-old De La Beckwith of Medgar Evers's murder, sentencing him to life in prison. He died there seven years later. As a Mississippi State Supreme Court justice wrote about the retrial: "Miscreants brought before the bar of justice in this state must, sooner or later, face the cold realization that justice, slow and plodding though she may be, is certain in the state of Mississippi."