This Day in History: 2017-09-09
1773 – “Phillis Wheatley’s ‘Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral’ Published” “Phillis Wheatley, the first professional African-American woman poet, became the first African-American woman whose writings were published with the printing of this volume. The book was published by Archibald Bell, the leading bookseller and printer London at the time, who required proof that Wheatley had written the poems herself. The volume of poems, 39 in all, broke barriers for African-American writers, as it was illegal in several of the states in the U.S. for a slave to learn how to read or write.”
December 8, 2009 - "U.S. Agrees to Settle Lawsuit Brought by Native Americans for $3.4 Billion"
The United States federal government announced that it intends to pay $3.4 billion to settle claims that it has mismanaged the revenue in American Indian trust funds. In 2012, it finalized this settlement, ending one of the largest and most complicated class-action lawsuits ever brought against the United States. The lawsuit lasted 15 years in total and involved hundreds of thousands of land trust accounts that date back to the 19th century. Specialists in federal tribal law described the suit as one of the most important in the history of legal disputes involving the government's treatment of American Indians.