After 49 years as Cuba’s president, Fidel Castro retires
By Karen Juanita Carrillo

After taking a year to recover from intestinal surgery, Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz finally announced on Tuesday, February 19, 2008 that he would no longer serve as president of Cuba.   

Castro announced his retirement in an official letter reproduced in Granma, Cuba’s paper of record.  

In the letter, Fidel specifically states that he will not accept the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief at Cuba’s next Parliament session set to take place on Sunday, February 24th.

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Was Warren G. Harding America's first Black president?

Author Eva M. Doyle asserts that Warren G. Harding, President from 1921 to 1923, had Black ancestry but never publicly acknowledged or denied it.     

Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News

Her soon to be released book, "Warren Gamaliel Harding: One of America's Black Presidents", indicates that Harding's paternal great-grandfather was African-American, as was one of his great-grandmothers. 

She further asserts in her book that Harding has been described as having a dark complexion and wiry hair, and his father, Dr. George T., as having thick lips and chocolate skin.

"Everyone is saying, if Obama gets elected, he'll be the first black president. That's not entirely true," Doyle told Buffalo News Staff Reporter Deidre Williams. "I've got to let everyone know he won't be the first Black president."

For the past 29 years, Doyle has been writing a weekly column on Black history for the Buffalo Criterion in Western New York.  Her column, "Eye on History," features not readily known facts about Black history.  She also has a weekly radio broadcast on WUFO-AM that airs the first and third Tuesday of the month and works as a consultant  to the Buffalo School system's African-American history program.

Doyle will have a book-signing from 6 to 8 p.m. March 1 in the Pratt-Willert Community Center, 422 Pratt St., near Genesee Street, in Buffalo, New York.