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AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

1990
	Remember Operation Desert Shield, later called Operation Desert Storm. President George Bush committed over 500,000 American troops to convince Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait in 1990.
	Nelson Mandela, after serving twenty-seven years in prison, was freed and came to New York City to speak at the United Nations.
	Denzel Washington (1954- ) won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the movie, Glory.
	Walter H. Annenberg, a white businessman, gave a philanthropic gift of fifty million dollars to the United Negro College Fund. This was the largest amount ever contributed.
	Charles R. Johnson (1948- ) won the 1990 National Book Award for his book, Middle Passage.
	Marcelite J. Harris (1943- ) was advanced to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Air Force in 1990.
	Reginald F. Lewis (1942-1993), Chief Executive Officer of TLC Beatrice, had his company listed as the Number One in Total Revenue for 1990 by Black Enterprise Magazine.
	Lee Patrick Brown, Ph.D. (1937- ) became the Police Commissioner of New York City, the nation's largest police force. His job was under lots of pressure due to several radical encounters within the city in the Williamsburg, Bensonhurst, Harlem, and Flatbush sections of New York.

1991
	President George Bush signed the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
	General Colin L. Powell (1937- ), as Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, was at the helm of the logistical warfare involving the Persian Gulf War and Desert Storm which eventually lead to a victory and freedom for the Kuwaiti people.
	The Anita Hill (1956- ) testimony on Capitol Hill brought to the nation's attention the issue of sexual harassment among women in the workplace. This knowledge was highly charged because of Ms. Hill's testimony during the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas (1948- ), her former boss at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
	The Rodney King Incident hit the news concerning police brutality. King was stopped for a traffic violation but was beaten terribly. A white motorist captured this incident on videotape, and, with this exposure, these incidents suddenly became real to others around the country.
	Frederick McKinley Jones (1982-1961) was awarded posthumously the National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest award for technological achievement. Jones invented and patented over sixty useful devices involving food preservation and refrigeration.
	Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, stepped down after serving twenty-four years as a justice.
	Whoopi Goldberg (1949- ) won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress in the movie, Ghost.
	John Singleton (1968- ) became the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Director Category for his film, Boyz N the Hood, which was released in July of 1991.
	On November 7, 1991, Earvin "Magic" Johnson (1959- ) announced his retirement from professional basketball due to his testing positive for the HIV Virus. This Laker star later returned briefly, but the fear of infecting others caused him to retire again in 1992.

1992
	Riots broke out in Los Angeles, California after the April 29, 1992 acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in the Rodney King Beating Trial. President Bush sent in Armed troops to stop the violent outbreak. Fifty-two people were killed and over five billion dollars in damage to property was estimated. This became America's most costly and worst single riot.
	William Jefferson Clinton was elected to the Presidency of the United States in 1992 and appointed his longtime friend and supporter, Vernon E. Jordan (1935- ), as chairman of his transition team.
	Carol Mosely Braun (1947- ) of Illinois became the first African-American woman to be elected to the United States Senate.
	1992 saw sixteen new African-Americans elected to Congress in the House of Representatives: Sanford Bishop from Georgia, Corrine Brown form Florida, Eva Clayton from North Carolina, Jim Clyburn from South Carolina, Cleo Fields from Louisiana, Alcee L. Hastings from Alabama, Earl F. Hilliard from Alabama, Eddie B. Johnson from Texas, Cynthia Ann McKinney from Georgia, Carrie Meek from Florida, Melvin J. Reynolds from Illinois, Bobby Rush from Illinois, Robert C. Scott from Virginia, Walter Tucker III from California, Melvin Watt from North Carolina, and Albert Wynn from Maryland.

1993
	President William J. Clinton chose, in 1993, five African-Americans to serve in his cabinet: Ronald Brown as Secretary of Commerce, Michael Espy as Secretary of Agriculture, Hazel O'Leary as Secretary of Energy, Jesse Brown as Secretary of Veteran Affairs, and Joycelyn Elders as Surgeon General.
	Maya Angelou (1928- ), poet, writer, and actress, presented at President Clinton's inauguration her salute to America's new president, the composed poem "On the Pulse of Morning."
	On January 24, 1993, retired Justice Thurgood Marshall died at age eighty-four. His immense legacy as a justice on the high court helped to advance the civil liberties of all African-Americans.
	Toni Morrison (1931- ) became the first African-American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Her body of work covered several aspects of the black experience in America. The Swedish Academy presented this award in October of 1993.
	After achieving remarkable accomplishments in the NBA, Michael Jordan (1963- ) retired from the Chicago Bulls, at age thirty, on October 6, 1993.
	On Long Island, Colin Ferguson created a violent act by shooting twenty-five commuters on the Long Island Railroad. Six of these passengers died on December 7, 1993.
	Violence hit the World Trade Center and brought national attention to the safety of Americans in the workplace, especially in large skyscrapers in big cities. This happened on February 26, 1993.
	Clara "Mother" Hale, founder of Hale House in New York for drug addicted and HIV infected infants, died on December 18, 1993.

1994
	After thirty years, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 murder of Medger Evers, field secretary for NAACP, while he was in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
	O.J. Simpson (1947- ) made the front page after being chased down the Los Angeles Freeway in a White Ford Bronco. He was to later go on trial for the murders of his wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goldman.
	Among the major issues before the nation was Health Care Reform. President Clinton brought the issue before the Congress, but no major legislation was passed in 1994.
	Former President Richard Millhouse Nixon died on April 22, 1994.
	On May 19, 1994, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis passed away in her Manhattan, New York Townhouse at age sixty-four.
	Black South Africans, for the first time, were allowed to cast their votes in an open election. The African National Congress and Nelson Mandela were the winners. Mandela took office as President on May 10, 1994.
	Cubans were leaving Cuba for the shores of America by the thousands in 1994. The United States Coast Guard intercepted more than 30,000 Cuban defectors.
	Gun Control was before Congress. The Brady Bill passed both Houses, and President Clinton signed it into law on Nov. 30. 1993. It went into effect in March 1994. Restrictions on purchases and background checks on all buyers of handguns were part of the law.
	The Omnibus Violent Crime Control and Prevention Act passed both Houses. $30.2 billion dollars was included in the prevention bill package.

1995
	The long, highly charged trial of O.J. Simpson ended on October 3, 1995 with a not guilty verdict in the murders of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman.
	Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of slain NAACP field Secretary, was elected chair of the NAACP by its board members.
	On February 2, 1995, President Clinton nominated Dr. Henry Foster, M.D. from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee as the New U.S. Surgeon General. Foster's nomination was filibustered in the Senate. Foster declined to move on.
	1995 saw the jobless rate down to 5.4% of total U.S. population in March of this year.
	The Oklahoma bombing, which exploded outside a Federal office building in Oklahoma City, caused the deaths of 169 people on April 19, 1995.
	Representative Newt Gingrich of Georgia was sworn in as the Speaker of the House.
	The Bosnian Croatians and Bosnian Serbs were at war. Mass killings of Muslims and Croatians brought charges against the Government of Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia.

1996
	The Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, was captured in Montana on April 3, 1996, after seventeen years of widely spaced bombing incidents via mail packages.
	On April 9, George Walker (1922- ) became the first African-American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. The winning composition was Lilacs for Soprano or Tenor and Orchestra which was based on a poem by Walt Whitman.
	The Clintons are under constant check by the Grand Jury investigating the Whitewater Affair in 1996.
	Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown (1941-1996), on a mission to further American business, was killed along with thirty-four others in the country of Croatia.
	Air travel disasters: on May 11, a ValuJet crashed in the Florida Everglades where 110 people lost their lives. On July 17, a TWA Jet crashed in the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, Long Island, killing 230 passengers.
	One of the top grossing movies of 1996 was the popular Independence Day with Will Smith. It made 112 million dollars in the first week of its showing.
	Michael Johnson, Dominique Dawes, and Carl Lewis were among the African-Americans showcasing their talents at the Summer Olympic Games starting on July 19, in Atlanta, Georgia.
	Up for President of the United States of America in 1996 were Democrat William Jefferson Clinton (1946- )and Republican Robert J. Dole (1923- ).
	In July 1996, the British journal, Nature, reported that a sheep named Dolly was born by cloning from one parent without fertilization involved.

1997
	On January 20, 1997, William Jefferson Clinton was inaugurated as the forty-second President of the United States.
	World War II (1939-1945) saw about one million African-Americans serving their country as freedom fighters. Some omissions had been made in recognizing these soldiers as heroes in battle. President Clinton awarded the Medal of Honor to seven of these soldiers in a special ceremony on January 13, 1997 at the White House. Seventy-seven year old Vernon J. Baker, the only one living at the time, was there to receive his medal. The others who received them posthumously were: Edward A. Carter, Jr., John R. Fox, Will F. James, Jr., Ruben Rivers, Charles L. Thomas, and George Watson.
	On January 16, Bill and Camille Cosby lost their son, Ennis Cosby. The twenty-seven year old was murdered on a road in California while changing a flat tire.
	Mother Teresa, the humanitarian Catholic nun, died on September 5, 1997 in Calcutta, India.
	The JonBenet Ramsey murder mystery came out of Boulder, Colorado.
	The famous designer Gianni Versace was murdered outside his Miami Beach Mansion on July 15. On July 23, his elusive murderer, Andrew Cunanan, killed himself on a Miami houseboat.
	An upset in Congress - Senator Alfonse D'Amato (Republican, NY) lost his bid for re-election to Charles E. Schumer (Democrat).
	Princess Diana of Wales was killed at age thirty-six along with her companion Dodi Fayed and the driver in a Paris, France tunnel. Millions of people around the world watched the funeral rites on television.
	Golfer Tiger Woods (1976- ) won the Masters Tournament. He was the youngest golfer to ever win this title. In 2000 he became the youngest golpher to win all four major tournaments.
	1997 was celebrated in the baseball season as the Fiftieth Anniversary of Jackie Robinson's entry into the Major Leagues.

1998
	The Monica Lewinsky Affair put President Bill Clinton "under the gun." He admitted that he had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with the White House intern. Impeachment was called for by the U.S. House of Representatives.
	Mark McGwire became the new "Home Run King". The St. Louis slugger racked up a record seventy homeruns for the season.
	Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) died at age fifty-seven on November 15, 1998.
	Oprah Winfrey (1954- ) won her defamation case imposed by the Beef Industry on February 26, 1998. She was accused of causing a slump in the beef industry due to her making statements on her show about Mad Cow Disease.
	Newt Gingrich (Republican, Georgia) announced he would leave Congress at the end of his term on November 6, 1998.

1999
	Singer Lauryn Hill won five Grammy Awards a record for a female artist - on February 24, 1999.
	President Bill Clinton was acquitted by the Senate of all impeachment charges on February 12, 1999. The vote was 55 to 45 against conviction.
	On April 20, 1999, twelve students and one teacher were killed at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Thirty other students were wounded. Eric Harris, 18, and Dyland Klebold, 17, did the shooting and then killed themselves.
	John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and his sister-in-law Lauren Bessette died in a plane crash on July 16, 1999.
	The race for the Presidency of the United States in 2000 began in June and July 1999. Those who entered the race were: Vice President Al Gore (D-Tennessee), Bill Bradley (D-New Jersey), George W. Bush (R-Texas), Pat Buchanan (R-New York), John McCain (R-Arizona), and Ralph Nader (Green Party).
	First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton declared her interest in the Senate seat vacated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-New York) on July 6, 1999.
	Venus and Serena Williams, tennis sisters, played in the finals. On September 10, 1999, Serena Williams won the U.S. Open Championship, becoming the first African-American woman to win since Althea Gibson in 1957 and 1958.
	Sarah (Sadie) Delany died at age 109 on January 25, 1999. She co-authored with her sister Bessie Delany the best seller, Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters First 100 Years, in 1984.

2000
	The year 2000 came off without loosing control to the feared Y2K computer bug.
	As the new century began, President Clinton addressed the nation and said, "The Twenty-First Century will require us to share with our fellow Americans and, increasingly with our fellow citizens of the world, the benefits of globalization."
	Hillary Rodham Clinton won the senatorial election over Rick Lazio, 56% to 44%, becoming the first First Lady to be elected to a public office as well as the first woman senator from New York State.
	In the closest election in history and after several court decisions and recounts, Gov. George W. Bush from Texas became the 43rd President of the United States. He defeated Vice President Al Gore in the Electoral College 271 to 260 votes, although Gore won the popular election 49 to 48.8 million votes. This is only the second time that the son of a previous president has been elected; the first was John Quincy Adams in 1825.
	On December 16, President George W. Bush officially announced that retired General Colin Powell was his choice for Secretary of State.
	The year 2000 for African-Americans will still focus more on celebrities: DMX, Sean (Puffy) Combs, Denzel Washington, sports figures, and those in the media.
	Racial awareness will be heightened due to more African-Americans playing a part in all walks of life: in education, politics, science, business, etc. Being American will be more the trend toward a people being free to chose in a fast moving world.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Library exhibits require lots of detail and time. Without the support of key people, the end product and visual display of this exhibit would be somewhat incomplete. Thanks to Ann, Sergei, Jerry, and Danielle for those extra hands. To the Instructional Media Center's staff, thanks for filling needy requests, especially for the quick laminations. A special thanks again to the creative talent displayed by Aehyun Jeong, a Graduate Assistant in the IMC. Your spectacular creation of the African baobab tree and banner at the top of the exhibit added excitement to the whole exhibit. Thanks to Betty Ranieri and Janet Jennings for keeping me timely with the extensive text put on disk. Last but not least, my utmost thanks go out to Robert Delaney, our staff librarian. His patience in keeping this exhibit up and running on time is more than one can ask. My research could not be completed and put into those formats of first rate printouts and a story that will all be told on our Library Website without him. 1900-2000 was not an easy task!

Thanks to all,
Melvin Sylvester

HTML and Design by Robert Delaney robert.delaney@liu.edu