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."
CAMILLE
BOHANNON
Hiram "Hank" Williams
(September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953)
Singer, songwriter, and musician Hank Williams is regarded as
one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he recorded 55 singles (five
released posthumously) that reached the top 10 of the Billboard
Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 12 that reached
No. 1 (three posthumously).
Born and raised in Alabama, Williams was given guitar lessons
by African-American blues musician Rufus Payne in exchange
for meals or money. Payne, along with Roy Acuff and Ernest
Tubb, had a major influence on Williams’s later musical style.
Williams began his music career in Montgomery in 1937, when
producers at local radio station WSFA hired him to perform
and host a 15-minute program.
Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S.
states, the 14th Amendment, granting citizenship to all persons
born or naturalized in the United States—including formerly
enslaved people—is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution
Secretary of State William Seward (below) issued a proclamation certifying the amendment.
William Henry Seward
(May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872)
On this day in 1751, James Madison, drafter of the Constitution,
recorder of the Constitutional Convention, author of the Federalist
Papers and fourth president of the United States, was born on a
plantation in Virginia.
Madison first distinguished himself as a student at the College
of New Jersey (now Princeton University), where he successfully completed a four-year course of study in two years and, in 1769,
helped found the American Whig Society, the second literary and
debate society at Princeton (and the world), to rival the previously established Cliosophic Society.
