This Week In Black History (November 23- November 29)

November 23, 1897 – Inventor Andrew Jackson Beard patented the design for the “Jenny” railroad car coupler, changing the railroad industry. His idea secured two cars by merely connecting them together. (Courtesy Photo)

November 24, 1916 – Civil rights lawyer and municipal court judge, Frankie Muse Freeman was born in Danville, Virginia. Freeman was a part of the NAACP’s 1949 Brewton v. the Board of Education of St. Louis in 1949. She was also the lead attorney for the landmark NAACP case Davis et al v. the St. Louis Housing Authority, which ended legal racial discrimination in public housing. (Photo Courtesy: Missouri History Museum)

November 25, 2008 – Melody Barnes was chosen by then President-elect Barack Obama to serve as the Director of Domestic Policy Council shortly after the presidential election in 2008, a position she held until her resignation at the end of 2011. (Photo Courtesy: obamawhitehouse.archives.gov)

November 26, 1939 – R&B & Soul and Pop-Rock musical star, Tina Turner was born in Nutbush, Tennessee. Turner rose to fame in the 1960s’ producing notable hits: “A Fool in Love,” “Proud Mary” and “Nutbush City Limits” with husband and band member, “Ike & Tina Turner Revue.” After leaving a tumultuous and volatile relationship with Ike Turner, she reinvented her image and sound with song, “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” (Courtesy Photo)

November 27, 1976 – Born in Culver City, actor Jaleel White is best known for his role as the Steve Urkel on the sitcom 1990s’ classic, “Family Matters.”

November 28, 1987 – Fifteen year-old Tawana Brawley was found after being missing for four days, she was found seemingly unconscious in a garbage bag outside her family’s former apartment. With burned and torn clothes, she was covered in feces and had racial slurs written on her body. Brawley explained that she was abducted by car, brought to the woods, and then sexually abused and forced into oral sex. Brawley indicated one of the men who assaulted her was a white cop. The alleged tragedy had caused racial tension in New York, however, after an full on investigation and much validity proved that her accusations of being abducted and rape were false. Tawana Brawley, with the Rev. Al Sharpton, in 1988. (Photo Courtesy: Mark Elias/AP)

November 29, 1925 – Baseball legend Minnie Minoso was born Saturnino Orestes Arrieta Armas Minoso in Perico, Cuba. Earning the nick name “Cuban Comet,” Minoso was the first White Sox player to break the color barrier in 1951. (Photo Courtesy: J. R. Eyerman/Getty Images)

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