by Ann Sanner
Associated Press Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)—Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Feb. 2 added the first minority to his previous all-White Cabinet, a move that followed mounting criticism that he was not doing enough to diversify the group of people who supply him with key policy advice.

"As I've said all along, diversity is a journey—not a destination," Kasich said a news conference where he announced Michael Colbert as director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

WELCOME TO OHIO—Ohio Department of Transportation crews add the names of new Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor to the welcome sign above the William Harsha Bridge near Aberdeen, Ohio on Jan. 14. (AP Photo/The Ledger Independent, Terry Prather.)

Week of Feb. 4-10

February 4

ROSA PARKS

1913—Civil rights heroine Rosa Parks is born on this day in Tuskegee, Ala. It was her refusal in December 1955 to give up her seat to a White man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus that sparked the modern Civil Rights Movement. For refusing to obey the laws of segregation, she was arrested and convicted. Montgomery Blacks responded with a boycott of city buses. A young minister named Martin Luther King Jr. was called upon to lead the boycott, which would last for nearly 13 months. The drama and accompanying legal challenge all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court captivated the nation and propelled Dr. King into the national international spotlight as the nation’s premier civil rights leader. Mrs. Parks died in 2005 at 92.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP)—Two men angry over a dispute at an Ohio fraternity house party left the gathering and returned early Sunday, spraying bullets into a crowd and killing a Youngstown State University student who was trying to separate two groups, authorities said. Eleven other people were injured, including a 17-year-old with a critical head wound.
Nineteen-year-old Braylon L. Rogers and 22-year-old Columbus E. Jones Jr. were arrested Sunday on charges of aggravated murder and shooting into a house and 11 counts of felonious assault according to Youngstown police Chief Jimmy Hughes.

Week of January 21- 27

January 21

1773—Poet Phyllis Wheatley, born in 1753, was freed on this day in 1773. Kidnapped in Africa and sold as a slave when she was only seven years old, Wheatley would become Black America’s first poet. She grew up in a prosperous Boston family, which allowed her to learn to read. She not only mastered English but also excelled in Greek and Latin. Her first book of poetry received rave reviews in the United States and Europe.