Week of March 1925

March 19

1620—The first Black child born in America, William Tucker, was probably born on this date in Jamestown, Va. However, some controversy surrounds the exact date. What we know for sure is that he was the son of two of the first Africans brought to America as indentured servants in August

NAT KING COLE

1619—Anthony and Isabella. We also know he was baptized on Jan. 3, 1624. Further, there is debate as to whether his last name was actually “Tucker.” It seems that many historians simply assumed that the child was given the last name of the man on whose plantation his parents worked. While this would later become the practice on many plantations, there is no documentation that Anthony and Isabella actually gave their son the last name of Tucker.

2. What woman was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature?

3. What Black woman refused to give up her seat to a White man, in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, thus sparking the Civil Rights Movement of the following decade?

WASHINGTON (NNPA)—It’s hard to know what to expect when you meet a Forbes “lister.” Someone literally so wealthy, so successful that we’re forced to pluck them once a year from office suites, stages and basketball courts and rank them by the zeroes in their bank accounts. Names like Oprah and Magic and Bob and Sheila Johnson float to the top. Now we can add Washington native R. Donahue Peebles to that list.

R. DONAHUE PEEBLES

WASHINGTON (NNPA)—During a recent congressional hearing to discuss what many contend is an insufficiently funded Black advertising campaign of Census 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau’s media-buying agencies were blistered by a charge that they allegedly played unfair politics with Black newspaper publishers. These charges have resulted in an ongoing probe into why the Census allocated so little to count African-Americans.

ENSURING EQUITY—U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, discusses possible Census ad discrimination with NNPA Chairman Danny Bakewell.