(Photo By Flickr User qthomasbower)

Black History Today for February 11th:

2012- Grammy Award winning Singer-songwriter, actress, producer, and model, Whitney Elizabeth Houston, passed away this day in Los Angeles, CA. In '09, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most awarded female act of all time.

1990- Nelson Mandela is released from prison.

1989- The Right Reverend Barbara Clementine Harris, was consecrated a Bishop on this day.

1976- Clifford Alexander, Jr. is confirmed as the first African-American Secretary of the Army. He will hold the position until the end of President Jimmy Carter's term.

1961- Robert Weaver sworn in as administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, highest federal post to date by a Black American.

1943- Blues and soul singer Little Johnny Taylor, was born on this day in Conway, AR. He passed away in '02.

1942- Otis Clay, an R&B, Blues, and soul singer, who started in gospel music, was born on this day in Waxhaw, Bolivar County, MS. Also, singer, songwriter, and record producer, Leon Haywood, was born on this day in Houston, TX.

1898- Owen L. W. Smith of North Carolina, AME Zion minister and educator, named minister to Liberia.

1783- Jarena Lee (considered the first female preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church) is born in Cape May, NJ. In 1836, she published her autobiography, The Life and Religious Experiences, of Jarena Lee, a Coloured Lady, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel. 

1644- First Black legal protest in America pressed by eleven Blacks who petitioned for freedom in New Netherlands (New York). Council of New Netherlands freed the eleven petitioners because they had "served the Company seventeen or eighteen years" and had been "long since promised their freedom on the same footing as other free people in New Netherlands."