This Week In Black History

Week of July 22-28
July 22
1861—President Abraham Lincoln submits the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. The order freeing slaves, however, was not actually issued until Jan. 1, 1863. And even then it benefited very few slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the rebellious Southern states. But the federal government at the time did not have control of the South so no slaves actually went free. In the so-called Border States where the federal government did have authority, the Proclamation did not apply. About the only slaves who benefited were those who had already escaped and fled to the Union side during the Civil War.

1939—Jane Matilda Bolin becomes the first Black female judge in America. New York City Mayor Fiorella LaGuadia appointed her a judge in the court of domestic relations.
1963—Floyd Patterson loses his heavyweight boxing title to Sonny Liston and Liston would later lose it to a young fighter by the name of Cassius Clay—later Muhammad Ali.
2001—Actor Whitman Mayo dies in Atlanta, Ga., of a heart attack. He was 71. Mayo is best known for his role as “Grady” in the popular 1970s television series “Sanford and Son.”