This week in black history

Jet, Jan 27, 2003

January 22, 1981--

* Samuel R. Pierce, attorney and former judge, was named secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on this day, the only Black member of the Reagan administration Cabinet. He served as HUD secretary from 1981 to 1989. Pierce was born on September 8, 1922, at Glen Cove, Long Island, NY, earned law degrees from Cornell and New York Universities. He later worked as a consultant. Pierce died October 31, 2000.

January 23, 1977--

* Roots, an adaptation of Alex Haley's best-selling novel by the same name, made television history in its premiere on this day. The miniseries, presented on eight consecutive evenings, was viewed by more Americans than any other program since the invention of television. Some 130 million people watched the series. Roots told the story of Haley's family from the kidnapping of one of his ancestors, Kunta Kinte, from West Africa in the mid-18th century by slave traders through the adversities of slavery in Virginia and North Carolina to the family's migration to Tennessee after the Civil War. Haley spent 12 years researching and writing the story, which had become a best-seller even before the TV program. By February 20, 1977, it was the No.l-selling book in the nation.