This Week In Black History

* Bill Cosby, comedian, actor, became the first Black to receive an Emmy Award for best actor in a TV series on this day for his role in "I Spy." Cosby played an undercover agent disguised as a trainer-companion to an international tennis player, played by Robert Culp. The role also won Cosby best actor Emmys in 1967 and 1968. Over the last 30 years, Cosby has earned Emmys and other accolades for his starring roles in the weekly TV series "The Bill Cosby Show" (1969-71), "The New Bill Cosby Show" (1972-73), "The Cosby Show" (1984-92), a landmark TV comedy series in which he portrayed a physician and lovable head of the Huxtable family, and "Cosby" (1996-2000). He also provided some of the voices on the animated TV series "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" (1972-79) and "The New Fat Albert Show" (1979-84). Cosby was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1992.

May 23, 1900--

* Sergeant William H. Carney was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery in action during the Civil War on this day. Carney is the first Black soldier to receive this honor. During a charge on Fort Wagner, SC, in 1863 Carney, a member of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, saw that the color sergeant carrying the flag had been wounded. Carney went through a volley of enemy bullets and was twice wounded but rescued the flag. As he delivered it to his own regiment, he shouted, "The Old Flag never touched the ground!"