This week in Black history

Jet, May 20, 2002

May 17, 1875--

The first Kentucky Derby was won by Black jockey Oliver Lewis, who rode Aristides to victory at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY, on this day. Other Black jockeys who made their mark in the Derby were Alonzo Clayton, James "Soup" Perkins, William Walker and Willie Simms.

May 17, 1954--

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on this day that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The decision, read by Chief Justice Earl Warren, held that the "separate-but-equal" doctrine enunciated by the Supreme Court in 1896 had "no place" in public education. The decision affected 17 states with compulsory public school segregation and 4 states with permissive school segregation. (Sixteen states prohibited school segregation; 11 had no laws regulating it.) The Supreme Court decision had no effect on the "separate-but-equal" doctrine as applied to other fields, and it did not apply to private schools.

May 19, 1965--

Patricia R. Harris, lawyer, educator and diplomat, was named ambassador to Luxembourg by President Lyndon Johnson on this day, becoming the first Black woman to hold a diplomatic rank in U.S. history. She served in the post until 1967. A native of Mattoon, IL, Harris, the daughter of a Pullman waiter father and a school-teacher mother, earned a bachelor's degree at Howard University and graduated summa cum laude. In 1960, she graduated from George Washington University's National Law Center, ranked first in her class. Twelve years after her Luxembourg appointment, she again made history in 1977, becoming the first Black woman to hold a presidential Cabinet post when President Jimmy Carter named her secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. In 1979, Carter appointed her secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare. Later that year, Congress established a separate U.S. Dept. of Education, which she headed until 1981. She died in 1985 of cancer at the age of 60.