Brooklyn Today for February 24
Good morning. Today is the 55th day of the year. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Feb. 24, 1869, reported that African-American residents of Weeksville, which is now part of Crown Heights, protested when the Brooklyn Board of Education replaced a black teacher with a white teacher. The residents circulated a petition asking the board to search for an African-American teacher. The petitioners wondered whether the ruling in the 1857 Dred Scott case that “the African race has no rights the majority is bound to respect” still held. A few days later, however, other residents of the area circulated an opposing petition, calling the demand for the removal of the white teacher “wicked and silly.”
Well-known people who were born today include actor Billy Zane (“Titanic,” “The Phantom”), television journalist Paula Zahn, actor Abe Vigoda (“Barney Miller,” “Fish”), former U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut) and actor Steven Hill (“Law & Order”).