May 23, 1985 Jerome Heartwell “Brud” Holland, education administrator and diplomat, posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan. Holland was born January 9, 1916 in Auburn, New York. He graduated from Cornell University, where he was the first African American to play on the football team and an All-American in 1937 [...]
Archive | May 23, 2011
May 23rd in African American History – Vernon D. Jarrett
May 23, 2004 Vernon D. Jarrett, newspaper, television, and radio journalist, died. Jarrett was born June 19, 1921 in Paris, Tennessee. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Knoxville College in 1941. In 1946, he moved to Chicago and began his career at the Chicago Defender. For three years beginning in 1948, he co-produced [...]