Today in Black History: May 30th
1943 – American Football Player, Gale Sayers is Born
Gale Sayers born May 30, 1943, in Kansas, was an American football player. Sayers grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, where he was a star running back and record-setting long jumper in high school.
Sayers was drafted by the Chicago Bears in 1965, and in his first season he amassed 2,272 combined rushing, receiving, and kick-return yards, as well as 22 touchdowns, a record for a rookie. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1965, becoming the youngest football player to be elected to the Football Hall of Fame
A series of significant knee injuries forced Sayers to retire at age 29 before the 1972 NFL season. He later served as assistant athletic director at the University of Kansas (1972–76) and Southern Illinois University (1976–81). Sayers co-wrote two autobiographies, one of which Brian’s Song was adapted, a film telling the story of Brian Piccolo, a white running back, clashes with and befriends fellow Chicago Bears running back Gale Sayers.
2006 – Clifton R. Wharton Issued Commemorative Stamp
Clifton R. Wharton, one of the first African-Americans to hold a professional position in the U.S. State Department, born in 1899 in Baltimore, Maryland. Described as a “scholastic marvel,” skipped college and was accepted to Boston University Law School where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Law in 1920 and Master’s degree in Law in 1923.
He later worked as a law clerk in the State Department’s legal section. His 40-year career with the State Department spanned an era of profound change in U.S. foreign policy and in the bureaucracy which managed that policy. He also worked closely with President Eisenhower as a U.S. Foreign diplomat, and John F. Kennedy as a representative of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and a delegate to the United Nations.
Clifford Wharton, Sr., died at 90 on April 23, 1990 in Arizona. On May 30, 2006, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp depicting Wharton in its Distinguished American Diplomats commemorative series.
