Six Klansmen arrested in connection with the bombing of ten school buses in Pontiac, Michigan.

Elgin Gay Baylor was a professional basketball player, who played for Los Angeles Lakers. He was born on September 16, 1934 and began playing basketball from an early age. Two of his older brothers were also basketball players, and Baylor took naturally to the game. He was already known to be a gifted player by the time he was in high school, and was selected to be a three time All City player. However, his academic record had always been poor, and he dropped out of high school to work odd jobs and play in local leagues. He rejoined high school a few years later, by which time he had grown to his full height of 6 feet 5 inches and weighed 190 lbs. During this time he won a trophy for being the Area’s Best Basketball player for 1954. He broke several records that season and maintained his outstanding performance.

Because of his lackluster academic record, he did not get admitted to college but a friend helped him to get a scholarship to attend the College of Idaho. There he played both basketball and football, after which he set out to attend Seattle University. He led them to NCAA Championship finals, which the team lost to the Kentucky Wildcats. In 1958, he was drafted by the National Basketball Association, where he joined the Minneapolis Lakers (later renamed the Los Angeles Lakers). He left his final year of college at Seattle University and chose to play full time for the Lakers. The team had been performing poorly when Baylor joined and he was given a $20,000 contract to help bring them back on their feet. His contribution to the team’s improved performance has been acknowledged by all, including the owner of the LA Lakers Bob Short himself, who says that if Elgin Baylor hadn’t joined the team, it probably would have continued to perform miserably and might even have gone out of business entirely.

In his first season with the NBA, Baylor was named “The Rookie of the Year” with some of the best statistics in the game. He finished fourth in the league in scoring, third in rebounding and eighth in assists.

Wednesday September 19, 1928, Palm Beach Post reported: Well over 1200 negro refugees quartered in the auditorium of the Negro high school, where they are being fed and many housed.... hospital features of the refugee unit are under direction of Dr. J.C.Hodges, colored, who since Sunday night has ministered to hundreds, most of the hurts, however, being of minor nature. This article is reporting on some of the survivors of the Storm of 28, which hit Palm Beach county, September 16, 1928.

Emperor Jones, starring Paul Robeson as Brutus Jones is released by United Artists. It is Robesons first starring movie role and the first major Hollywood production starring an African American with whites in supporting roles

Birthday in Sanford, Florida of Claude A. Barnett founder of the Associated Negro Press, the first and only Black news wire services in the US. Barnet, who died in 1967, was a 1906 graduate of Tuskegee Institute.

Holy Cross Catholic Church, the first church for African American Catholics inCorpus Christi, Texas, was organized before the parish obtained a physicalbuilding.  Before African Americans in that area had achurch, they attended Saint Patrick’s Church, and some joined the MexicanChurch, Our Lady of Guadalupe, provided that they spoke Spanish.  In 1914, however, the Diocese of CorpusChristi finally recognized this disparity and canonically directed specificministering to African Americans.  TheJosephites who administered to black Catholics sent Father Sam Kelly to start aparish, but after he arrived, he had an accident that crushed his hand, and hesoon left to start a church in New Orleans, Louisiana. A Passionist priest, Father Mark Moeslein, replaced him.  Moeslein held mass in individual homes andpracticed the sacraments at Saint Patrick’s church.

The number of Black Catholics remained small in Corpus Christi; consequently,they had little money to build a church until Mother (Marie) Katharine Drexel(now Saint Katharine Drexel) arrived. Sister Drexel, an heiress and founder of the Sisters of the BlessedSacrament, often traveled to various places around the country and startedschools and churches for Native Americans and African Americans.  She stopped in Corpus Christi in 1917 andlearned of the inability of the parish to build a church.  Drexel found a piece of land after touringthe city and purchased it for the purpose of building a church and school; she gave the land to thediocese with the proviso that there should always be an African American churchin the city.

Construction soon started and a two-story building which housed the church onthe first floor and a school on the second floor was built.  The structure was dedicated by Bishop PaulJoseph Nussbaum on September 16, 1917. Another building was moved to the property to house the clergy and athird soon followed to house the sisters who taught at the school.  The Ursuline Sisters ran the school for fiveyears until the Sisters of the Holy Ghost (now

The French abolish Slavery in all there territories, 1848

Letitia Graves died on September 16, 1952 in Seattle.

Debbye Turner is crowned Miss America. She is the third African American to win the crown since the inception of the pageant in 1921.

More than 3000 African Americans died when Lake Okeechobee fooded Western Palm Beach County, Florida, with a 10-15 foot tidal wave. There are at least 3 mass graves containing the bodies of negroes interned without coffins or identification

Negro Baseball League player, Orlando Cepeda was born, 1937

Negro Baseball League player, William Foster was born, 1889

Ambassador Charles A. James was born in 1922 in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he attended public schools.  After high school, James enrolled at Westchester State Teachers College in Pennsylvania (now Westchester University) where he studied for one year before enlisting in the U.S. Navy during World War II where he served for three years.  James received his B.A. from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont in 1949 and an LL.B. from Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut in 1952.  In 1977, Middlebury College conferred an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree on Ambassador James for his lifetime of public service.

James practiced law in Sacramento and Stockton, California for ten years.  In Stockton, he served as area President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) covering northern California and Nevada.  In 1961, James was appointed Assistant Attorney General for the State of California by Attorney General Stanley Mosk.  James played a significant role in the enactment of truth in lending legislation in California and negotiated changes in the packaging practices of 21 major cosmetic firms.  He also served as chairman of the staff to the Committee for Youth and Children in the California State Assembly.

In 1964, James became the Deputy Director and later, Director of the Peace Corps, first in Ghana and then Uganda.  He later served in an administrative position for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Thailand and Vietnam.  In 1974 he joined the U.S. Foreign Service and from 1974 to 1976, he worked as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C.  During his tenure as Deputy Assistant Secretary, James headed the U.S. delegation to the African Economic Commission.

On September 16, 1976, President Gerald Ford nominated James as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Niger.  After confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Ambassador Nelson traveled to Niamey, the capital, to

Jon Hendricks, singer, born

Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born in September 16, 1950 in West Virginia and excelled in studies from an early age, regardless of his underprivileged family background. Graduating from high school as valedictorian in 1968, Gates attended a local college before enrolling in Yale University from where he graduated in 1973 with a degree in History.

Continuing his education in Clare College, a part of University of Cambridge, Gates graduated with a doctorate degree in English Language in 1979, becoming the first African-American to receive a PhD from the university.

In the 1980s, Gates became a renowned scholar of African-American literature, culture and history, teaching at Yale University, Duke University and Harvard University, eventually becoming the head of its African American studies department. He currently serves as the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University.

Serving as a researcher, he started work on the Black Periodical Literature Project, uncovering lost literary works published in 1800s including the first novel published by an African-American in the United States. To support his scholarship in African-American literature, Gates also received a grant from McArthur Foundation in 1981.

Henry Louis Gates continued to make contributions to the field of literature in various forms, be it an editor or a contributor to the field of literary theory. Some of his works include Black Literature and Literary Theory, Bearing Witness: Selections from African American Autobiography in the Twentieth Century and The Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism.

Adopting signifying, the practice of representing an idea indirectly through a humorous or insulting commentary, Gates developed its notion in pieces like Figures in Black and The Signifying Monkey, talking about issues concerning literature, music and even slavery. Other works by Gates include Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex: Hate Speech, Civil Rights, and Civil

Keenan Ivory Wayanss In Living Color wins an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series.

The hurricane that hit Palm Beach County Florida, on September 16, 1928, has been identified as the third largest death total, caused by a natural disastor, in the United States.

Blues singer Ripley B.B. King was born in Itta Benna, Mississipi.