This week in Black history

January 2, 19704--Dr. Clifton R. Wharton, Jr., an economist and vice president of the Agricultural Development Council (ADC) in New York, was elected president of Michigan State University on this day, becoming the first Black to head a major White American university in the 20th century. He served there for eight years. Born September 13, 1926, in Boston, he earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1947 and master's from Johns Hopkins University in 1948. He was the first Black to earn a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1958, at which time he was working at the ADC, where he became vice president in 1967 and served until 1969 when he assumed the presidency at Michigan State.

January 4, 1985--Congressman William H. Gray III is elected chairman of the House Budget Committee, to date the highest congressional post held by a Black. As Chairman of the Committee he was responsible for overseeing Election Reform, Campaign Finance Reform and other issues. Born August 20, 1941, in Baton Rouge, LA, Gray attended Franklin and Marshall College, where he earned a B.A. in 1963. He received an M.A. in divinity in 1966 from Drew Theological Seminary and an M.A. in theology from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1970. Gray was elected to Congress in 1978, and during his 13-year tenure in the U.S. government he held a variety of positions, including chairman of the Democratic Caucus and Majority Whip. In 1991 Gray left politics to head the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), where, over the next 12 years, he raised over $1.5 billion for the organization. Gray recently announced he would retire from the organization at the end of March.