This Week In Black History

Week of January 7-13
January 7
From 4th Century AD—Ethiopian Christmas—known as Ganna—is celebrated on Jan. 7. Ethiopian Christianity was much closer to the Christian Coptic Church of Egypt and as a result never incorporated many of the dictates of the early Roman Catholic Church. Thus, a plausible argument can be made that Ethiopian Christianity is more pure (or less corrupted) than that which emerged from the early Christian Church in Europe. Regardless, the best scientific speculation is that Jesus was born neither on Dec. 25 nor Jan. 7. The most probable month of his birth is April.
1891—Zora Neale Hurston is born in Eatonville, Fla. She became one of the central figures in that great African-American cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. She excelled as a writer, folklorist and anthropologist.
1955—Marian Anderson debuts on this day at the New York Metropolitan Opera House as Alrica in Verdi’s operate “Mask Ball.” She was the first African-American to perform such an opera at a major opera house.