Week of June 4-10
June 4
1922—Samuel L. Gravely is born. Gravely became the first African-American admiral in the United States Navy and the first African-American to command a U.S. warship. The Richmond, Va., native died in 2004 at the age of 82.
1972—College professor and activist Angela Davis is acquitted by a jury of charges that she assisted and conspired with the young men involved in a deadly 1970 shootout at the Marin County courthouse in California. The assault on the courthouse was an attempt to free imprisoned Black activist George Jackson. At least three people were killed during the escape attempt. Davis, a Birmingham, Ala., native who became a member of the Communist Party, spent 16 months in prison but on this day in 1972 she was found not guilty of all charges by an all-White San Jose, Calif., jury.
1973—Arna Bontemps dies at the age of 72 in Nashville, Tenn. Born in Louisiana, Bontemps became one of the key figures in the Black artistic and cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. Bontemps was a prolific writer and poet.
About Post Author
