BLACK HISTORY MONTH FACTS

FACT:
In 2002, Maritza Correia became the first black female swimmer to break an American record, beating out Jenny Thompson, the most decorated American swimmer in Olympic history. She is also the first female black swimmer to make it onto the U.S. Olympic team.

FACT:
The Buffalo Soldiers served in the Spanish American war, various Indian wars and helped to settle the west by installing telegraph lines, protecting wagon trains and defending new settlements. More than 20 Buffalo Soldiers have received the highest military award, the Medal of Honor—the most any military unit has ever received.

FACT:
Muhammad Ali the self-proclaimed "greatest [boxer] of all time" was originally named after his father, who was named after the 19th century abolitionist and politician Cassius Marcellus Clay.

FACT:
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on friend Maya Angelou's birthday on April 4th, 1968. Angelou stopped celebrating her birthday for many years afterward, and sent flowers to King's widow every year until Mrs. King's death in 2006.


FACT:
Macon Bolling Allen was the first African-American to pass the bar and practice law in the United States in 1845.  Macon Bolling Allen was also the first black American Justice of the Peace.