Author Lerone Bennett, Jr. was born on this day.

On this date in 1969, Dr. Clifton R. Wharton Jr. elected president of Michigan State University and became the first Black to head a major, predominantly white university in the twentieth century.

On this date in 1956, Mae C. Jemison was born the youngest of three children of Charlie and Dorothy Jemison, a maintenance worker and schoolteacher. Raised in Chicago, Illinois, she graduated from Morgan Park High School in 1973.

On this date in 1888, Capital Savings Bank of Washington, D.C., the first Black bank, opened in Washington, D.C. The Savings Bank of the Order of True Reformers (Richmond, Va.) was chartered on March 2, 1888.

On this date in 1871, President Grant suspended the writ of habeas corpus and declared martial law in nine South Carolina counties affected by Klan disturbances.

On this date in 1817, Samuel Ringgold Ward, minister, abolitionist, author, born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

On this date in 1787, Prince Hall submitted, to the State Legislature of Boston, Massachusetts, a petition asking for equal educational rights. His petition was not granted.

On this date in 1720, Jupiter Hammon, a writer and self-educated Calvinist, who was born a slave. Hammon is believed to be the first black poet published in the United States.

On this date in 1926, Rock and roll innovator Charles “Chuck” Edward Berry born in San Jose, California, and later taken to St. Louis Missouri, where he grew up. Berry regarded as one of the founders of Rock and Roll and is responsible for such hits as “Johnny B. Good” and “Roll Over Beethoven.”