This Week In Black History July 31- August 6, 2024

THOMAS ‘HIT MAN’ HEARNS JULY 31 1874—Father Patrick Francis Healy be­comes the first Black president of a major White university when he is inaugurated on this day as president of Georgetown University. Healy was also the first Afri­can American to earn a PhD. However, racial prejudice forced him to earn his degree in Europe not the United States. Healy was born in Macon, Ga., in 1834 to a Black slave woman and a White planta­tion owner who decided to acknowledge his five bi-racial children. They were all sent north to be educated. Although some felt he could have passed for White, Healy openly acknowledged his African ancestry. Healy died in 1910. 1960—Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad calls for an all-Black state in America during a speech in New York City. Muhammad was a fearless critic of American discrimination against and the mistreatment of Blacks and he also ad­vocated independent, Black owned busi­nesses, institutions and religion. 1961—One of Hollywood’s most tal­ented and versatile performers and the recipient of a truckload of NAACP Image awards, Laurence John Fishburne III is born on this day in Augusta, Ga. He be­gan his acting career in his first play, “In My Many Names and...