ED DANAHUE

On this day in history, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
was ratified — granting African American men the right to vote.

The amendment declared that the "right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude."

Jack Roosevelt Robinson
(January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972)

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson, who integrated Major
League Baseball in 1947, was born to a sharecropping
family in Cairo, Georgia, on this day in history, Jan. 31,
1919.

His fight for racial equality and his exploits on the field
of play made him the first athlete in North American
sports to have his jersey number (42) retired by every
team in his game. (FOXNEWS)

Gail Fisher (August 18, 1935 – December 2, 2000)

Fisher was a actress who was one of the first black
women to play substantive roles in American television.

She was best known for playing the role of secretary
Peggy Fair on the television detective series Mannix
from 1968 through 1975, a role for which she won two
Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy Award; Fisher was
the first African-American woman to win those awards     
along with a NAACP Image Award in 1969.   

Fisher died in Los Angeles in 2000, reportedly from 
kidney failure. She was 65. Twelve hours later, her
brother Clifton died from heart failure.

Robert Clifton Weaver (December 29, 1907 – July 17, 1997)

On January 13, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed
the first African American cabinet member, making Robert C.
Weaver (above) head of the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), the agency that develops and implements
national housing policy and enforces fair housing laws.

In keeping with his vision for a Great Society, Johnson sought
to improve race relations and eliminate urban blight. As many
of the country’s African Americans lived in run-down inner-city
areas, appointing Weaver was an attempt to show his African
American constituency that he meant business on both counts.