This week in Black history

Jet, July 22, 2002

July 18, 1863--

* Sergeant William H. Carney, performed a heroic act that earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery in action on this day during the Civil War. He became the first Black soldier to receive this honor. A member of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, his citation stated that when the color sergeant carrying the flag was shot down, during a charge on Fort Wagner, SC, Carney grasped the flag, led the way to the parapet and planted the colors therein. When the troops fell back, he brought out the flag under fierce fire during which he was twice severely wounded. Carney was later presented the Medal of Honor for outstanding devotion to duty on May 23, 1900.

July 19, 1979--

* Patricia Roberts Harris was appointed on this day by President Jimmy Carter to her second Cabinet position as secretary of health, education and welfare. Her political and academic careers boast a series of firsts: She was the first Black woman to become an ambassador, appointed to Luxembourg by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. As dean of Howard University Law School in 1969, she became the first Black woman to head a law school. In 1977, she became the first Black female member of a presidential Cabinet with her appointment as secretary of housing and urban development, also during the Carter administration. She was a professor at George Washington University when she died of cancer in 1985 at age 60.