This Week In Black History

Alice Walker, novelist, poet and essayist, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for The Color Purple on this day. The novel, which was made into a hit movie, is told in letters between two sisters, one living in poverty in rural Georgia and the other a missionary in Africa. Ranked among the top contemporary American writers, she was born February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, GA, to sharecropper parents. She was the youngest of 12 children. Walker attended Spelman in Atlanta and Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1965.

April 19, 1887

Elijah McCoy, engineer and inventor, patented the machinery lubricator attachment on this day (Patent #361,435). His oiling devices made it possible for trains, steam boilers and factory machinery to be oiled without shutting down. Throughout his life, McCoy worked to improve lubricator systems for trains and other machines. The expression "the real McCoy," meaning--the real thing--is said to have originated with machinery buyers who insisted that their new equipment have only McCoy lubricators.

April 19, 1998

Michael Jordan, professional basketball's greatest player, won his 10th and final scoring title, the most in NBA history, on this day. Jordan, who later led the Chicago Bulls to a sixth NBA Championship victory in June, announced his retirement from basketball the following year.