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Aberjhani | b. July 8, 1957, Savannah, Georgia, United States Aberjhani, born Jeffery J. Lloyd, is a writer and editor. He is coauthor of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance and author of The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois. His works of poetry include Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black and The Bridge of Silver Wings. |
Ackers, Blanch | b. November 28, 1914, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States d. May 4, 2003, Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States Blanch Ackers was a folk artist and school teacher. In 2002, the University of Michigan Museum of Art acquired five of her drawings. |
Adderley, Janet | b. September 17, 1956, Marshall, Texas, United States Janet Adderley is an actor and educator. She is the founder of The Adderley School For the Performing Arts, which has spaces in California, Texas, Connecticut, and Louisiana. She has appeared in stage productions of Starlight Express and A...My Name is Alice and featured in the movie Annie. |
Aikens, Vanoye | b. November 27, 1922, Georgia, United States d. August 24, 2013, Los Angeles, United States Vanoye Aikens was a dancer and choreographer for the Katherine Dunham Dance Company. He appeared with Dunham in Floyd's Guitar Blues, L'Ag'ya, and Barrelhouse performed on Broadway during the 1940s and 1950s. Aikens continued to tour with Dunham's troupe until it disbanded in 1963. |
Ailey, Alvin | b. 1931, Rogers, Texas, United States d. December 1, 1989, New York, United States Alvin Ailey was a dancer, director, choreographer, and activist. He founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and is known for creating the first racially integrated dance company in the United States, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. |
Alice, Mary | b. December 3, 1936, Indianola, Mississippi, United States d. July 27, 2022, New York, New York, United States Mary Alice was an actor who won widespread acclaim for her role as Rose Maxson in Fences. She has featured in films such as Sparkle, The Matrix Revolutions, Awakenings, and Malcolm X. Alice’s TV credits include I’ll Fly Away, The Women of Brewster Place, and A Different World. |
Allen, Billie | b. January 13, 1925, Richmond, Virginia, United States d. December 29, 2015, New York, New York, United States Billie Allen was an actor, dancer, and director who regularly appeared on the TV show The Phil Silvers Show in her role as WAC Billie. She was co-president of the League of Professional Theatre Women. Her film and TV credits include Souls of Sin, The Wiz, and Eddie Murphy Raw. |
Allen, Danielle S. | b. November 3, 1971, Takoma Park, Maryland, United States Danielle S. Allen is a classicist and political scientist. She is the James Bryant Conant professor and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. She is the author of Talking to Strangers, Our Declaration, and Education and Equality. |
Allen, Debbie | b. January 16, 1950, Houston, Texas, United States Debbie Allen is a producer, director, actor, and choreographer. She is the executive producer/director of the series Grey’s Anatomy, in which she plays Dr. Catherine Fox. She is also the artistic director of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, a dance and theater non-profit organization for young people. |
Allen, Marshall | b. May 25, 1924, Louisville, Kentucky, United States Marshall Allen is a free jazz and avant-garde jazz alto saxophone player. Born in Kentucky, Allen later moved to Philadelphia. He is best known for his work with Sun Ra, having recorded and performed mainly in this context since the late 1950s and has led The Sun Ra Arkestra since Sun Ra's Death. He has recorded two albums as their bandleader. |
Allen, Red | b. January 7, 1908, Louisiana, United States d. April 17, 1967, New York City, New York, United States Red Allen, born Henry James Allen, was a jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is credited as the first trumpeter to incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong. He is best known for inventive solos featured in Fletcher Henderson, the Mills' Blue Rhythm Band, with whom he recorded Ride, Red Ride. |
Alston, Charles | b. November 28, 1907, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States d. April 27, 1977, New York, New York, United States Charles Henry Alston was a painter, sculptor and illustrator who was active in the Harlem Renaissance. He created many works in black and white, drawn to the monochrome for both its formal and social resonance. He is best known for his sculpture of Martin Luther King which was put up at the White House in 1990. |
Amos, Emma | b. 1937, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. May 20, 2020, Bedford, New Hampshire, United States Emma Amos was a painter, printmaker, weaver and educator. After moving from Georgia to New York, Amos became a member of the Black artist group Spiral. Later in her career she became a professor at Mason Gross School of Art, Rutgers University. |
Andrews, Benny | b. November 13, 1930, Plainview, Georgia, United States d. November 10, 2006, New York, New York, United States Benny Andrews was an artist, educator, activist and co-founder of the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC). Andrews also led the BECC in founding an arts education program in prisons and detention centers. |
Andrews, J.E. | b. Date and year unknown, Place unknown d. Date and year unknown, Place unknown J.E. Andrews was founder and president of the Women’s National Association for the Preservation of the White Race and frequent contributor to Georgia Women’s World. In her writing, she opposed the the White-led Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching. |
Angelou, Maya | b. April 4, 1928, St. Louis, Missouri, United States d. May 28, 2014, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson, was a memoirist and poet. Her most famous work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings describes her childhood in the Jim Crow South before moving to California, United States, in 1940. She recited On the Pulse of Morning at president Clinton’s inauguration. |
Archer, Osceola | b. June 13, 1890, Albany, Georgia, United States d. November 20, 1983, New York, New York, United States Osceola Archer was an actor and director who appeared on Broadway as an actor four times, including in Between Two Worlds. She was a member of the Actors’ Equity Committee for Minority Affairs and taught and directed at the American Negro Theatre in Harlem and the Putnam County Playhouse. |
Armstrong, Lillian Hardin | b. February 3, 1898, Memphis, Tennessee, United States d. August 27, 1971, Chicago, Illinois, United States Lillian Hardin Armstrong was a jazz pianist, composer, arranger and singer. She wrote songs, performed with and managed the career of Louis Armstrong, to whom she was married. A renowned musician in her own right, her compositions include Struttin' with Some Barbecue and Two Deuces. |
Armstrong, Louis | b. August 4, 1901, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. July 6, 1971, New York City, New York, United States Louis Armstrong was a jazz trumpeter and singer and one of the most influential artists in jazz history. He worked with King Oliver before going solo and recording with his Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles. West End Blues established him as a virtuoso soloist in jazz. |
Artis, William | b. February 2, 1914, Washington, North Carolina, United States d. April 3, 1977, Place unknown William Ellisworth Artis was a sculptor and professor who studied his craft at Augusta Savage‘ Studios. During his life he was a Professor of Ceramics at Nebraska Teachers College, before becoming a Professor of Art at Mankato State College. |
Atkins, Cholly | b. September 13, 1913, Pratt City, Alabama, United States d. April 19, 2003, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States Charles "Cholly" Atkins, born Charles Sylvan Atkinson, was a dancer and vaudeville performer and choreographer. He started performing with Atkins & Coles, with partner Charles "Honi" Coles and later became noted as the house choreographer for the various artists on the Motown label. |
Atkins, Russell | b. 1926, Cleveland, Ohio, United States Russell Atkins is a poet, composer, and co-founder of Free Lance, a Black avant-garde magazine. He trained at Cleveland Institute of Music speicalising in piano, but is best known for his poetry. |
Attaway, William | b. November 19, 1911, Greenville, Mississippi, United States d. June 17, 1986, California, United States William Attaway was a novelist, playwright, songwriter, screenwriter, and actor. He wrote the novel Blood on the Forge, based on three Black brothers’ experience of the Great Migration. His books on music include Calypso Song Book and Hear America Singing. He also wrote the play Carnival. |
Austin, Doris Jean | b. 1949, Mobile, Alabama, United States d. 1994, Place unknown Doris Jean Austin was a writer and educator. Her only novel After the Garden explored themes of patricide and class struggle in Black America. She was the founder of the New Renaissance Guild and taught fiction workshops at Columbia University and the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center. |
Austin, Lovie | b. September 19, 1887, Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States d. July 8, 1972, Chicago, Illinois, United States Cora "Lovie" Austin, known as Lovie, was a composer, singer, session musician, and arranger. Her speciality was accompanying blues singers. Her work includes Moonshine Blues with Ma Rainey, and Wild Women Don't Have the Blues with Ida Cox and Sad 'n' Lonely Blues with Alberta Hunter. |
Avery, James | b. November 27, 1945, Pughsville, Virginia, United States d. December 31, 2013, Glendale, California, United States James Avery was an actor who was best known for playing Philip Banks, a wealthy lawyer, in the TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. His other TV credits include L.A. Law, The Closer, and That ’70s Show. He featured in the movies Fletch and 8 Million Ways to Die. |
Avery, Margaret | b. Date and year unknown, Mangum, Oklahoma, United States Margaret Avery is a film and stage actor. Her debut film was Magnum Force and she has starred in the Blaxploitation films Scott Joplin, The Lathe of Heaven, The Return of Superfly, and Heatwave. She also appeared in the play Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? |
Ayler, Ethel | b. May 1, 1930, Whistler, Alabama, United States d. November 18, 2018, Loma Linda, California, United States Ethel Ayler was an actor. She was a member of the Negro Ensemble Company and appeared in stage productions of Porgy and Bess, Simply Heavenly, and Jamaica. Her TV credits include Martin, Brooklyn South, and 7th Heaven, and she featured in films such as To Sleep With Anger and The Bodyguard. |
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Bailey, Buster | b. July 19, 1902, Memphis, Tennessee, United States d. August 12, 1967, New York City, New York, United States Buster Bailey, born William C. Bailey, was a jazz clarinetist. He played in the bands of pioneering figures Fletcher Henderson and Louis Armstrong and bands led by Noble Sissle and Clarence Williams. He appeared on numerous jazz and blues recordings with artists like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. |
Bailey, Pearl | b. March 29, 1918, Newport News, Virginia, United States d. August 17, 1990, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Pearl Bailey was a singer and actor remembered for her stage role as Dolly Gallagher Levi in an all-Black production of the musical Hello, Dolly!.Her hit recordings include “Beat Out That Rhythm on the Drum,” “Takes Two to Tango,” and “Toot Toot Tootsie, Goodbye.” |
Baker, Josephine | b. June 3, 1906, St. Louis, Missouri, United States d. April 12, 1975, Paris, France Josephine Baker was an American-French actress, singer and dancer. Baker was one of the first black woman to start in major motion pictures in the mid 1970s. Baker was a central figure in the Roaring Twenties who refused to perform to segregated crowds. She is also recognised for her contribution to the civil rights movement. |
Baker, Matt | b. December 10, 1921, Forsyth, North Carolina, United States d. August 11, 1959, New York, United States Clarence Matthew Baker was the first known successful African-American artist in the comic-book industry. In 2009, Baker was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame. |
Baldwin, James | b. August 2, 1924, New York City, New York, United States d. December 1, 1987, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France James Arthur Baldwin was an American writer who helped raise public awareness of racial and sexual oppression. Baldwin's written work includes essays, plays, poems and novels. He is well known for his semi-autobiographical novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and non-fiction work, The Fire Next Time. |
Ball, Geraldine | b. Date and place unknown, United States d. Date and place unknown, United States Geraldine Ball was a tap dancer. In the 1940s, she was a member of the Three Poms, the tap-acrobatic all-black female tap dance troupe with Ludie Jones and Sylvia Warner. The team remained together until the early 1950s. |
Ballard, Florence | b. June 30, 1943, Detroit, Michigan, United States d. February 22, 1976, Detroit, Michigan, U.S. Florence Ballard, born Florence Glenda Chapman, was a singer and a founding member of the Motown vocal female group, the Supremes. Her Parents had migrated from Mississippi before she was born. Ballard contributed vocals to ten number-one pop hits and 16 top forty hit singles between 1963 and 1967, including Where Did Our Love Go. |
Bannarn, Henry | b. July 17, 1910, Hughes, Oklahoma , United States d. September 20, 1965, Ellsworth, Maine, United States Henry Bannarn is a sculptor and teacher who was active in the Harlem Resistance. Bannarn taught alongside Charles Alston and Augusta Savage at the WPA-sponsored Harlem Art Workshop. |
Baraka, Amina | b. December 5, 1942, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States Amina Baraka is a poet, singer, actor, and activist. Her debut poetry collection was Blues in All Hues. She founded the African Free School, a community center for children. She has been an organizer for the Congress of African People and the Women’s Division of the Committee for a Unified Newark. |
Barker, Blue Lu | b. November 13, 1913, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. May 7, 1998, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Blue Lu Barker, born Louise Dupont, was a jazz and blues singer. Her recording career started after moving to New York. She worked with Erskine Hawkins and recorded for Decca Records until 1939. Her best-known recordings are Don't You Feel My Leg,Georgia Grind and Look What Baby's Got for You. |
Barker, Danny | b. January 13, 1909, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. March 13, 1994, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Danny Barker was a jazz musician, guitarist and vocalist. He moved from Louisiana to New York at the age of 21. He worked with many greats, including Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, Benny Carter, Jelly Roll Morton, Baby Dodds, James P. Johnson, Sidney Bechet and Red Allen. He also toured and recorded with his wife, singer Blue Lu Barker. |
Barthé, Richmond | b. January 28, 1901, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, United States d. March 6, 1989, Pasadena, California, United States Richmond Barthé was a sculptor who was a played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance. After graduating from the Art Institute of Chicago he became a very popular artist in New York. His work includes a statue of Toussaint L’Ouverture which he was commissioned for the Palace, Port-au-Prince in Haiti. |
Basie, Earl "Groundhog" | b. Date and Year unknown, Birmingham, Alabama, United States d. Date and Year unknown, United States Earl "Groundhog" Basie was a rhythm tap dancer and choreographer. He was known for his hard-hitting, flat-footed style. He started touring with the Whitman Sisters at age six and later worked in Paris. In 1941 he appeared in the Marx Brothers' film The Big Store. |
Bates, Peg Leg | b. October 11, 1907, Fountain Inn, South Carolina, United States d. December 8, 1998, South Carolina, United States Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates was a dancer and entertainer. After losing his leg at twelve, he taught himself to tap dance. He performed on Broadway and the Ed Sullivan Show. His trademark was a "Jet Plane" finale, in which he leapt over the stage and landed on his wooden leg. |
Bechet, Sidney | b. May 14, 1897, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. May 14, 1959, France Sidney Bechet was a jazz soprano saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He moved from New Orleans to Chicago an then New York. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz and one of the first musicians to improvise with jazz-swing feeling along with Louis Armstrong. He worked with Duke Ellington and Noble Sissle bands. |
Benbow, Will | b. October 15, 1881, Montgomery, Alabama, United States d. November 18, 1950, Indianapolis, United States Will Benbow was an vaudeville entertainer. He was a pioneer of black Vaudeville and the manager of the Alabama Chocolate Drops touring company. In 1916, he formed Beans and Benbow's Big Vaudeville Review with Butler "Stringbeans" May, one of the country's foremost black entertainers. |
Benjamin, Paul | b. 1938, Pelion, South Carolina, United States d. June 28, 2019, Los Angeles, California, United States Paul Benjamin was a film, TV, and stage actor. He starred in the film Across 110th Street. His other film appearances include Escape From Alcatraz, Do the Right Thing and Some Kind of Hero. He also appeared on various TV shows, including Starsky and Hutch, Kojak, ER, and Law & Order. |
Bennett, Gwendolyn B. | b. July 8, 1902, Giddings, Texas, United States d. May 30, 1981, Reading, Pennsylvania, United States Gwendolyn B. Bennett was a poet, writer, artist and teacher. She published poems, short stories and nonfiction in various literary journals. These included Opportunity, a magazine published by civil rights group The National Urban League and Fire!!, an African American literary journal. |
Bennett, Hal | b. April 21, 1930, Buckingham, Virginia, United States d. September 11, 2004, Place unknown Hal Bennett was a novelist and short fiction author who wrote about Christian symbology; sex, salvation, and insanity; and America's racial history. He is best known for Lord Of Dark Places, a novel about a southern-born, black phallic hero journeying from Burnside, Virginia, to New Jersey. |
Berry, Ananias "Nyas" | b. August 18, 1913, New Orleans, United States d. October 5, 1951, New Orleans, United States Ananias "Nyas" Berry was a dancer in the Berry Brothers dance trio with James and Warren Berry. They performed for over thirty years, appearing with Duke Ellington in Rhythmania, Blackbirds (1928),and were the first African American act at the Copacabana in 1929. |
Berry, James | b. 1915, New Orleans, United States d. 1969, Place Unknown James Berry was a dancer in the Berry Brothers dance trio with Ananias and Warren Berry. They performed for over thirty years, appearing with Duke Ellington in Rhythmania, Blackbirds (1928),and were the first African American act at the Copacabana in 1929. |
Berry, Warren | b. December 25, 1922, Place Unknown d. August 10, 1996, Place Unknown Warren Berry was a dancer in the Berry Brothers dance trio with Ananias and James Berry. They performed for over thirty years, appearing with Duke Ellington in Rhythmania, Blackbirds (1928),and were the first African American act at the Copacabana in 1929. |
Best, Willie | b. May 27, 1913, Sunflower, Mississippi, United States d. February 27, 1962, Woodland Hills, California, United States Willie Best was an actor, criticized for performing racist, stereotyped roles, often playing lazy, illiterate, simple-minded African American characters. He said, “Sometimes I tell the director and he cuts out the real bad parts. . . . But what’s an actor going to do? Either you do it or get out.” |
Bethel, Pepsi | b. August 31, 1918, Greensboro, North Carolina, United States d. August 30, 2002, New York City, United States Alfred "Pepsi" Bethel was a jazz dancer and choreographer. His career started at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, dancing the Cakewalk, Lindy hop, and Charleston before leading the Pepsi Bethel Authentic Jazz Dance Theater, which he founded in 1960. |
Bilbo, Theodore G. | b. October 13, 1877, Juniper Grove, Mississippi, United States d. August 21, 1947, New Orleans Louisiana Theodore G. Bilbo was a US senator and governor of Mississippi. He was a fierce opponent of anti-lynching legislation and desegregation. He wrote Take Your Choice: Separation or Mongrelization, a book that decries “race-mixing” and advocates for the relocation of African Americans to West Africa. |
Bingham, Howard Leonid | b. May 29, 1939, Jackson, Mississippi, United States d. December 15, 2016, Los Angeles County, California, United States Howard Leonid Bingham was a photographer who was most known for friendship with Muhammad Ali who he photographed often. Bingham also covered the 1960s race riots in the US and documented Black Activism. |
Binion, McArthur | b. September 1, 1946, Macon, Mississippi, United States McArthur Binion is a painter who work can be found in numerous public and private collections including the Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art at Rollins College, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, FL and Allen Memorial Art Museum. |
Blake, Eubie | b. February 7, 1887, Baltimore, Maryland, United States d. February 12, 1983, Brooklyn, New York, United States Eubie Blake, born James Hubert Blake, was a pianist and composer. He is most notable for Shuffle Along, his groundbreaking collaboration with singer and lyricist Noble Sissle. He is credited with the songs I’m Just Wild About Harry and Love Will Find a Way. |
Blanton, Jimmy | b. 1918, Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States d. July 30, 1942, California, United States Jimmy Blanton was a jazz double bassist. He is credited with innovating the bass technique with complex pizzicato and arco bass solos. His work with the Duke Ellington band has significantly influenced subsequent jazz bassists for decades. |
Blayton, Betty | b. July 10, 1937, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States d. October 2, 2016, Bronx, New York, United States Betty Blayton was an illustrator, painter, printmaker, sculptor and co-founder and Board Secretary of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Blayton was also the co-founder and Executive Director of Harlem Children's Art Carnival (CAC),and co-founder of Harlem Textile Works. |
Bohanon, Gloria | b. June 19, 1938, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. May 7, 2008, Place unknown Gloria Bohanon was a artist and professor of painting, printmaking and design at Los Angeles Community College. Bohanon was also included in the exhibition Black Mirror, organized by Betye Saar, the first devoted to women of color at Womanspace, the predecessor of the Woman's Building. |
Boisseau, Juanita | b. July 22, 1911 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States d. May 22, 2012, United States Juanita Boisseau was a dancer. She performed regularly at the Cotton Club from 1923 to 1940 and often on stage with the Nicholas Brothers, Eubie Blake and Noble Sisle. She danced on Broadway in Blackbirds in 1939 and starred in the film Stormy Weather in 1943. |
Bolling, Leslie Garland | b. September 16, 1898, Surry County, Virginia, United States d. September 27, 1955, New York City, New York, United States Leslie Garland Bolling was a sculptor who was associated with the Harlem Renaissance. He was best known for his series of sculptures Days of the Week, composed of seven sculptures created between 1932 and 1937 which depicted typical weekly activities of African-Americans. |
Bond, Ruth Clement | b. May 22, 1904, Louisville, Kentucky, United States d. October 24, 2005, Manhattan, New York , United States Ruth Clement Bond was a Quilter, Civic Activist who established a home beautification program for the wives of African American construction workers, teaching them how to design and create quilts. |
Bonds, Margaret | b. March 3, 1913, Chicago, Illinois, United States d. April 26, 1972, Place Unknown Margaret Bonds was a composer and pianist. Her father was from Texas but migrated north to Chicago in 1901. Bonds is best known for her spirituals, piano adaptations of Shakespeare, and collaborations with Langston Hughes, The Ballad of the Brown King and Troubled Water. She was the first African American soloist to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. |
Boyd, Herb | b. November 1, 1938, Birmingham, Alabama, United States Herb Boyd is a writer and educator. His articles have been published in New York Amsterdam News, Black World, Emerge, Essence, Down Beat, First World, and The Black Scholar. He is the author of Black Detroit and Baldwin's Harlem and a professor ofBlack studies at City College of New York. |
Bradford, Perry | b. February 14, 1893, Montgomery, Alabama, United States d. April 20, 1970, New York City, United States Perry Bradford was a vaudeville performer and composer. He worked theatre circuits in an act billed as Bradford and Jeanette. He is best known for his show Made in Harlem and is credited for Mamie Smith being the first African-American blues singer to appear on record singing his Crazy Blues in 1920. |
Brady, Thomas P. | b. August 6, 1903, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. January 31, 1973, Houston, Texas, United States Thomas P. Brady was a supreme court judge and member of the White Citizens’ Council. He was the author of the book Black Monday, which called on White America to resist the United States Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling that made segregation in public schools unconstitutional. |
Bridgewater, Dee Dee | b. May 27, 1950, Memphis, Tennessee, United States Dee Dee Bridgewater is a singer and actor. Her albums include Afro Blue, Dear Ella, a tribute to jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, and Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie with Love from Dee Dee Bridgewater. She has appeared in the Broadway musical The Wiz, Sophisticated Ladies, and Lady Day. |
Briggs, Bunny | b. February 26, 1922, Harlem, New York, United States d. November 15, 2014, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States Bunny Briggs, born Bernard Briggs, was a tap dancer. He started as a child performer in 1927 and appeared in Steppin’ Fetchin film Slow Poke in 1932. His improvisational style was well-received in the bands of Erskine Hawkins, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, and Duke Ellington. |
Britt, Benjamin Franklin | b. May 4, 1923, Winfall, North Carolina, United States d. June 26, 1996, Place unknown Benjamin Franklin Britt was an award-winning surrealist and abstract painter, and art teacher. Britt was known for his oil paintings and charcoal drawings of Black subjects. |
Brown Jr, Samuel Joseph | b. April 16, 1907, Wilmington, North Carolina, United States d. October 23, 1994, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Samuel Joseph Brown Jr. was a watercolorist, educator and head of the Tra Club, an informal art association for African Americans. Brown was the first African American artist hired to produce work for the Public Works of Art Project. |
Brown, Ada | b. May 1, 1890, Kansas City, Kansas, United States d. March 30, 1950, Kansas City, Kansas, United States Ada Brown was a blues singer. She is best known for her recordings of Ill Natural Blues, Break o' Day Blues and Evil Mama Blues. She sang That Ain't Right with Fats Waller in the musical film Stormy Weather in 1943. She was a founding member of the Negro Actors Guild of America in 1936. |
Brown, Charles | b. January 15, 1946, Talladega, Alabama, United States d. January 8, 2004, Cleveland, Ohio, United States Charles Brown was an actor best known for his stage performances in Home and King Hedley II. He also appeared in Broadway productions of Rumors, The Mighty Gents, The Poison Tree, and The First Breeze of Summer. His TV credits include Kojak, Law and Order, The Equalizer, and Here and Now. |
Brown, Eddie | b. 1918, Omaha, Nebraska, United States d. Dec 28, 1992, Los Angeles, California, United States Eddie Brown was a tap dancer. Bill "Bojangles" Robinson discovered him. He danced professionally from the 1930s as part of a trio with Carl Gibson and Jerry Reed. As a solo dancer with Jimmie Lunceford, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie and toured with The Bill Robinson Revue. |
Brown, Ernest | b. April 25, 1916, Chicago, Illinois, United States d. August 21, 2009, Chicago, Illinois, United States Ernest "Brownie" Brown was a tap dancer and a founding member of the Copasetics. He was the dance partner of Charles "Cookie" Cook. They performed in films, such as Dorothy Dandridge, on Broadway in the musical Kiss Me, Kate and headlined the Apollo, Cotton Club, and the London Palladium. |
Brown, James Buster | b. May 17, 1913, Baltimore, Maryland, United States d. May 11, 2002, New York, United States Buster Brown, born James Brown was a tap dancer, choreographer and teacher. His seven-decade career spanned vaudeville, Cotton Club, Broadway and the Hollywood musical Something to Shout About. He is best know for his groups, the Hoofers and the Copacetics. |
Brown, Joan Myers | b. December 25 1931, Philadelphia, United States Joan Myers Brown is a choreographer, dancer, and director. She founded the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts offering African American dancers access to training denied to them. She later founded the Philadelphia Dance Company, Philadanco and the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD). |
Brown, Johnny | b. June 11, 1937, St. Petersburg, Florida, United States d. March 2, 2022, Los Angeles, California, United States Johnny Brown was an actor and singer best known for his role as Nathan Bookman in the TV sitcom GoodTimes. His singles include “Walkin’, Talkin’, Kissin’ Doll” and “You’re Too Much in Love With Yourself.” He appeared on Broadway in Golden Boy and Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights. |
Brown, King Rastus | b. Date unknown, Louisville, Kentucky, United States d. Date and place unknown, United States King Rastus Brown was a buck dancer who performed in the Minstrel circuits with the Black Patti's Troubadours in 1895 and later Vaudeville and Harlem stages and nightclubs. He is credited with the invention of the time-step; however, little personal information is known about him. |
Brown, Robert "Buck" | b. February 3, 1936, Morrison, Tennessee, United States d. July 2, 2007, Olympia Fields, Illinois, United States Robert "Buck" Brown was a painter and cartoonist who was known having cartoons and illustrations had also appeared in Ebony, Ebony Junior, Jet and Esquire magazines. |
Browne, Harriet | b. August 7, 1932, Chicago, Illinois, United States d. September 1, 1997, Bronx, New York Harriet Browne was a tap dancer, choreographer and educator. She was known as "Quicksand" for her innovation in sanding, a dance performed as slides and shuffles on a sand-covered floor. She performed with Cab Calloway Band, Flip Wilson, Gregory Hines and Bunny Briggs throughout her career. |
Browne, Theodore R. | b. 1910, Suffolk, Virginia, United States d. 1979, Boston, Massachusetts, United States Theodore R. Browne was an actor. He was assistant director of the Seattle Negro Unit of the Works Progress Administration Federal Theatre. He was a member of the American Negro Theatre and co-founder of the Negro Playwrights Company, both in New York City. |
Browne, Vivian E. | b. April 26, 1929, Laurel, Florida, United States d. July 23, 1993, New York, New York, United States Vivian E. Browne was a painter and the founder member of SoHo 20, a Broome Street gallery. Established in in 1973, the gallery was one of the first women’s art cooperatives in Manhattan. |
Bruce, John Edward | b. February 22, 1856, Piscatawy, Maryland, United States d. August 7, 1924, New York , New York, United States John Edward Bruce was a journalist and historian. He was an American correspondent for London’s African Times and the Orient Review and a contributor to the Negro World and the Daily Negro Times. He waspresident of the Afro-American Council and founder of the Negro Society for Historical Research. |
Bubbles, John | b. February 19, 1902, Louisville, Kentucky, United States d. May 18, 1986, California, United States John W. Bubbles was a tap dancer, vaudevillian and performer. He is known as the father of rhythm tap and performed in the duo "Buck and Bubbles", who were the first black artists to appear on television. His credits include Blackbirds, Ziegfeld Follies,Virginia and Carmen Jones. |
Burke, Selma | b. December 31, 1900, Mooresville, North Carolina, United States d. August 29, 1995, New Hope, Pennsylvania, United States Selma Hortense Burke was a sculptor and prominent member of the Harlem Renaissance. She taught at the Harlem Community Art Center and and established the Selma Burke Art School in New York City. |
Burnett, Charles | b. April 13, 1944, Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States Charles Burnett is a film producer, writer, editor, actor, photographer, and cinematographer. Burnet was educated UCLA Film School and took part in the Black Independent Movement, a group of African and African American filmmakers dedicated to depicting the true to the history of their people. |
Burroughs, Margaret | b. November 1, 1915, Saint Rose, Louisiana, United States d. November 21, 2010, Chicago, Illinois, United States Margaret Burroughs was an artist, poet, and educator. She was cofounder of DuSable Museum of African American History and a professor of humanities at Kennedy-King College. Her poetry collections include For Malcolm, What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black? and Africa, My Africa!. |
Butler, Octavia E. | b. June 22, 1947, Pasadena, California, United States d. February 24, 2006, Lake Forest Park, Washington, United States Octavia E. Butler was a novelist and science fiction author. Her novels include Parable of the Sower, Dawn, Kindred, and the Patternist series. Butler's family left Louisanna, United States, to escape the Jim Crow South. Butler was named after her mother and maternal grandmother, who raised her. |
Butts, June Dobbs | b. June 11, 1928, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. May 13, 2019, Johns Creek, Georgia, United States June Dobbs Butts was a sex educator and therapist. She was a psychology professor at Fisk University, a Planned Parenthood board director, and a sex therapist for the Masters and Johnson Institute. She wrote about sex for the American Journal of Health Studies as well as Jet and Ebony magazine. |
Byrd, Robert | b. November 20, 1917, North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, United States d. June 28, 2010, Merrifield, Virginia, United States Robert Byrd, born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr., was a politician, musician and former member of the Ku Klux Klan. He served as a United States senator from West Virginia for over 51 years. He went from an active member of the KKK to a public supporter of the Civil Rights Acts. |
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Campbell, Sylvester | b. 1938, Oklahoma City, United States d. March 9, 1997, Baltimore, United States Sylvester Campbell was a ballet dancer. He was known as a pioneer among black classical dancers. In 1957 he became a member of the New York Negro Ballet and later the founder of the Ellicott City Ballet Guild. |
Canedy, Dana | b. June 8, 1965, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States Dana Canedy is a journalist and editor raised in Kentucky, United States. She wrote A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor and is coauthor of How Race Is Lived in America. She was a senior editor at the New York Times and then later senior vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster. |
Carter, Asa Earl | b. September 4, 1925, Anniston, Alabama, United States d. June 7, 1979, Abilene, Texas, United States Asa Earl Carter was a speech writer and Ku Klux Klan member. He wrote the inaugural address of Alabama governor George Wallace. Wallace stated, “I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny . . . segregation today . . . segregation tomorrow . . . segregation forever! |
Carter, Nell | b. September 13, 1948, Birmingham, Alabama, United States d. January 23, 2003, Beverly Hills, California, United States Nell Carter was a singer and actor best known for her performances in the musical Ain't Misbehavin' and the television series Gimme a Break!. She has film credits in The Grass Harp, and The Proprietor and appeared in theater productions of Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Bubbling Brown Sugar. |
Cathey, Reg E. | b. August 18, 1958, Huntsville, Alabama, United States d. February 9, 2018, New York, New York, United States Reg E. Cathey was an actor best known for his role as Norman Wilson in the TV show The Wire. He has appeared in various TV series, including Law and Order and Special Victims Unit as well as a host of films, such as Fantastic Four and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. |
Charles, Ray | b. September 23, 1930, Albany, Georgia, United States d. June 10, 2004, Beverly Hills, California, United States Ray Charles was a pianist, singer, composer, and bandleader. He pioneered soul music's development by combining multiple genres: blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, country and gospel. He is best known for songs Georgia On My Mind, Hit the Road Jack and Stop. |
Charles, Roland | b. 1939, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. 2000, Place unknown Roland Charles was a photographer, curator and also the co-founder and of the Black Photographers of California and ran the Black Gallery. These spaces where considered as one of the first institutions created by and for Black photographers. |
Cheatham, Doc | b. June 13, 1905, Nashville, Tennessee, United States d. June 2, 1997, Washington D.C., United States Doc Cheatham, born Adolphus Anthony Cheatham, was a Jazz trumpeter, saxophonist, singer, and bandleader. His career spanned seven decades, starting as an ensemble player and developing into an expressive soloist who has worked with many jazz greats. |
Cherry, Don | b. November 18, 1936, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States d. October 19, 1995, Málaga, Spain Don Cherry was a jazz trumpeter. He moved with his family to California in 1940. He had a long association with free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman from the 1950s. He also performed with musicians John Coltrane and Sun Ra. In the 1970s, he became a pioneer in world fusion music, drawing on African, Middle Eastern, and Hindustani music. |
Childress, Alice | b. October 12, 1916, Charleston, South Carolina, United States d. August 14, 1994, New York, New York, United States Alice Childress was a playwright, novelist, actor, and poet. She wrote the young adult novel A Hero Ain't Nothin’ but a Sandwich, which is about a 13-year-old black heroin user. Childress also produced poetry, including Martinsville Blues, and won the 1985 African Poets Theatre Award. |
Childress, Alvin | b. 1907, Meridian, Mississippi, United States d. April 19, 1986, Inglewood, California, United States Alvin Childress was an actor best known for his role as cab driver Amos Jones in the TV comedy series Amos ’n’ Andy. He also appeared in the stage production of Sweet Land, Savage Rhythm, and Haiti. His film credits include Out of the Crimson Fog and Harlem is Heaven. |
Clark, Claude | b. November 11, 1915, Rockingham, Georgia, United States d. April 21, 2001, Oakland, California, United States Claude Clark was a painter, printmaker and art professor who was known for mentoring Black artists and advancing art education and recognition of Black artists. |
Clark, Edward | b. May 6, 1926, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. October 18, 2019, Detroit, Michigan, United States Edward Clark was an abstract painter known for his signature push-broom sweep paintings and developing the shaped canvas method in painting. |
Cleveland, Lady Bird | b. July 24, 1926, Cornelia, Georgia, United States d. June 2, 2015, Willingboro, New Jersey, United States Lady Bird Cleveland was a painter of African, Cherokee and Irish heritage. Much of Cleveland's work depicted significant figures in African American history such as Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois and Jesse Owens. She is the mother of the fashion model Pat Cleveland. |
Clifton, Lucille | b. June 27, 1936, Depew, New York, United States d. February 13, 2010, Baltimore, Maryland, United States Lucille Clifton was a poet, educator, and author of Blessing the Boats. Her work Generations: A Memoir retells the stories of her family's lives in the South. She was a distinguished professor of humanities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. |
Cole, Bob | b. July 1, 1868, Athens, Georgia, United States d. August 2, 1911, Catskills, New York, United States Bob Cole was a composer, playwright, and actor. In an article for The Colored American Magazine, he writes White American dramatists tend to “use the Negro as a villain . . . keeping alive racial prejudices. . . . But the greatest dramas of Negro life will be written by Negroes themselves.” |
Cole, Olivia | b. November 26, 1942, Memphis, Tennessee, United States d. January 19, 2018, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico Olivia Cole was an actor best known for her role in Roots, a TV mini-series that follows a West African family from their enslavement and journey to the United States to the lives of future generations. She also starred in the TV series Backstairsat the White House and the film First Sunday. |
Coleman, Ornette | b. March 9, 1930, Fort Worth, Texas, United States d. June 11, 1930, Fort Worth, Texas, United States Ornette Coleman, born Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman, was a jazz saxophonist, composer, and exponent of the free jazz genre. During his long career, he lived in LA and New York and worked with many greats. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2007. |
Coleman, Wanda | b. November 13, 1946, Los Angeles, California, United States d. November 22, 2013, Los Angeles, California Wanda Coleman was a poet known as the "L.A. Blueswoman". Influenced by her family's experience in Arkansas, United States, her poetry collections include Bathwater Wine, Hand Dance, and Wicked Enchantment. She was a Guggenheim fellow for poetry and a literary fellow for the city of Los Angeles. |
Coles, Marion | b. March 8, 1915, Harlem, New York, United States d. Nov 6, 2009, Queens, New York, United States Marion Coles was a tap dancer. She was a member of the famous Apollo #1 Chorus Line, and in later years, she was a founding member of the Silver Belles. She performed with numerous bands, including Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Count Basie. She married Charles "Honi" Coles in 1944. |
Collins, Janet | b. March 7, 1917, New Orleans, United States d. May 28, 2003, Fort Worth, Texas, United States Janet Collins was a ballet dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She was among the pioneers of black classically trained ballet dancers. Her credits include Out of This World, for which She received the Donaldson Award for best dancer on Broadway in 1951. |
Collins, Leon | b. February 7, 1922, Chicago, Illinois, United States d. April 16, 1985, Boston, United States Leon Collins was a tap dancer. He inspired a new jazz and classical music style, placing an innovative focus on melody rather than rhythm alone. He worked with Count Basie's orchestra, Earl Hines, Erksine Hawkins, Tito Puente and the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra. |
Coltrane, John | b. September 23, 1926, Hamlet, North Carolina, United States d. July 17, 1967, Huntington, New York, United States John Coltrane was a jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He was an influential and iconic figure of 20th-century jazz. He pioneered the use of modes and was at the forefront of free jazz. He led at least fifty recording sessions and appeared on many albums, including those by Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. |
Connor, Theophilus Eugene "Bull" | b. July 11, 1897, Selma, Alabama, United States d. March 10, 1973, Birmingham, Alabama, United States Theophilus "Bull" Connor was a politician in Birmingham, Alabama, for over two decades. He was a white supremacist who denied civil rights to black citizens and enforced racial segregation. He incited the use of fire hoses and police attack dogs against civil rights activists, including children. |
Conwill, Houston | b. 1947, Louisville, Kentucky, United States d. November 14, 2016, New York, New York, United States Houston Conwill was a sculptor known for co-creating the United States’ second largest Martin Luther King Memorial titled Revelation. |
Cook, Charles "Cookie" | b. February 11, 1914, Chicago, Illinois, United States d. August, 1991, New York City, United States Charles "Cookie" Cook was a tap dancer. He was a founding member of the Copasetics and the dance partner of Ernest "Brownie" Brown. They performed in films, such as Dorothy Dandridge, on Broadway in the musical Kiss Me, Kate and headlined the Apollo, Cotton Club, and the London Palladium. |
Cooke, Sam | b. January 22, 1931, Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States d. December 11, 1964, Los Angeles, California, United States Sam Cooke was a singer and songwriter. Often referred to as the "King of Soul", he was considered a pioneer and one of the most influential soul artists of all time. Born in Mississippi, his family moved to Chicago when he was a child. He began a solo career in 1957 with many successful songs, including You Send Me, A Change Is Gonna Come, Wonderful World and Cupid. |
Cooper, William Y. | b. 1934, Birmingham, Alabama, United States d. February 26, 2016, Buffalo, New York, United States William Y. Cooper was a Buffalo-based painter, muralist and art teacher. He self-defined as an Afrocentric Artist and was know for the numerous murals he painted in New York and West Africa. Cooper also founded the Afrocentric Artists’ Collective in 1979 and ran the organisation until 1981. |
Cortor, Eldzier | b. January 10, 1915, Richmond, Virginia, United States d. November 26, 2015, Seaford, New York, United States Eldzier Cortor was a painter and printmaker, known for representing celebratory depictions of African American women in his artwork. Through his work, Cortor highlighted the beauty and achievements of Black people and culture. |
Covan, Willie | b. March 4, 1898, Atlanta, Georgia, United Statews d. May 7, 1989, Los Angeles, California, United States Willie Covan was a tap dancer, actor, and vaudeville performer. He is best known for being a member of the tap quartet The Four Covans, a choreographer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and his films The Duke Is Tops and the Fox Movietone Follies of 1929. |
Cox, Ida | b. February 25, 1896, Toccoa, Georgia, United States d. November 10, 1967, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States Ida Cox, born Ida M. Prather, was a singer and vaudeville performer. Between 1923 and 1929, she recorded over forty records for Paramount. She worked with Jesse Crump, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver and Bessie Smith. Her recording of Wild Women Don't Have the Blues became a feminist Anthem. |
Cross, James "Stump" | b. Jun 20, 1919, Ocean City, New Jersey, United States d. January 25, 1981, New York, United States James "Stump" Cross was a tap dancer and comedian. He was known as Stump in the duo Stump and Stumpy with partner Eddie Hartman, formed in 1930. The duo capitalized on their contrasting heights and personalities. After the tragic early death of Hartman in 1951, Harold Cromer took the role of Stumpy. |
Crowder, Guy | b. August 9, 1939, Jefferson, Texas, United States d. October 29, 2011, Corona, California, United States Guy Crowder was a photographer, photojournalist, and photo historian in Los Angeles. Crowder portfolio includes many prominent African-american celebrities, including Magic Johnson, Ray Charles, Sammy Davis Jr., Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. |
Cruse, Mildred | b. c. 1916, Harlem, United States d. Date and place unknown, United States Mildred Cruse was a dancer and considered one of the original Lindy Hoppers. In 1936, she was recruited to join Whyte's Hopping Maniacs, which included Frank Manning, Naomi Waller, Lucille Middleton and Jerome Williams. She danced at the Cotton Club and toured with Cab Calloway's Band. |
Cumbuka, Ji-Tu | b. March 4, 1940, Helena, Alabama, United States d. July 4, 2017, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Ji-Tu Cumbuka was an actor known for his role as Wrestler in the mini-series Roots. He also appeared in the TV shows Matlock, Walker, Texas Ranger, In the Heat of the Night, and The A-Team, and his film credits include Harlem Nights, Brewster’s Millions, and Moving. |
Cummings, Blondell | b. October 27, 1944, Florence, South Carolina, United States d. August 30, 2015, New York City, United States Blondell Cummings was a modern dancer and choreographer. She was known for her experimental choreography. She was a founding member of Meredith Monk's company "The House". She later created her own art collective, the Cycle Arts Foundation, as a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration. |
Curtis, Hyacinth | b. Date and place unknown, United States d. Date and place unknown, United States Hyacinth Curtis was a dancer and choreographer. In 1926, she performed in Lew Leslie's Blackbirds with Florence Mills and Clarence Robinson, who she would later marry. Her performing career continued for thirteen years as a Cotton Club dancer. |
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Danner, Margaret | b. January 12, 1915, Pryorsburg, Kentucky, United States d. January 1, 1984, Chicago, Illinois, United States Margaret Danner was a poet and editor. Her collections of poetry include Impressions of African Art Forms, To Flower, and The Down of a Thistle. She was the assistant editor at Poetry magazine and a member of the South Side Community Art Center. |
Davis Jr., Sammy | b. December 8, 1925 New York City, United States d. May 16, 1990, California, United States Sammy Davis, Jr was a tap dancer, actor, singer and entertainer. He began his career in Vaudeville in the Will Mastin Trio and trained in tap dancing under Bill ("Bojangles") Robinson. He went on to star in 7 Broadway shows and 23 films. |
Davis Sr., Sammy | b. December 12, 1900, Wilmington, North Carolina, United States d. May 21, 1988, Beverly Hills, California, United States Sammy Davis Sr. was a dancer and the father of Sammy Davis Jr. He began his career in vaudeville, later with Will Mastin and his son Sammy Jr. in the Will Mastin Trio. They appeared in the 1947 film Sweet and Low and the 1956 Broadway musical Mr Wonderful. |
Davis, Alonzo | b. February 2, 1942, Tuskegee, Alabama, United States Alonzo Davis is an artist, academic and the co-founder of the Brockman Gallery in Los Angeles. Davis is best known for his mural "Eye on '84", which was one of the ten murals commissioned as part of the Los Angeles' 1984 Olympic Murals project. |
Davis, Angela | b. January 26, 1944, Birmingham, Alabama, United States Angela Davis is a political activist, scholar, and author best known for writing Women, Race, and Class. She is distinguished professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also a founding member of Critical Resistance, which aims to dismantle the prison industrial complex. |
Davis, Chuck | b. January 1, 1937, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States d. May 14, 2017, Durham, North Carolina, United States Chuck Davis was a dancer and choreographer. He created DanceAfrica, the Chuck Davis Dance Company and the African American Dance Ensemble, focusing on traditional African dances. |
Davis, Dale | b. 1946, Tuskegee, Alabama, United States Dale Brockman Davis is a trained artist and teacher who specialises in various kinds of ceramic production and sculpture. In 1967, alongside is brother Alonzo Davis, he co-founder/director of Brockman Gallery in Leimert Park to showcase artwork by artist of colour. |
Davis, Ossie | b. December 18, 1917, Cogdell, Georgia, United States d. February 4, 2005, Miami Beach, Florida, United States Ossie Davis was an actor, playwright, and civil rights activist. He appeared in stage productions of A Raisin in the Sun and The Emperor Jones and wrote the play Purlie Victorious. His films credits include Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever. He spoke at the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.. |
Davis, Toots | b. Date and place unknown, United States d. Date and place unknown, United States Toots Davis was a tap dancer. He started in the chorus of the Darktown Follies and, by 1916, had a solo spot. An innovator of tap dance flash steps, "over the tops and in the trenches," he partnered with Eddie Rector on the T.O.B.A. Circuit. |
Davis, Viola | b. August 11, 1965, Saint Matthews, South Carolina, United States Viola Davis is an actor and producer best known for her performance in the films The Help, Doubt, and Fences. Her other starring roles include Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Widows, and The Woman King. She is co-founder of JuVee Productions, an independent movie, TV, and theater production company. |
Dean, Dora | b. c. 1872, Covington, Kentucky, United States d. December 13, 1949, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States Dora Dean, born Dora Babbige, was a vaudeville dancer. She was often called "The Black Venus" and known for popularizing the cakewalk dance internationally, with her husband and dance partner, Charles E. Johnson, as part of the act Dean and Johnson, a popular vaudeville act of the pre-World War I. |
Delaney, Beauford | b. December 30, 1901, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States d. March 26, 1979, Paris, France Beauford Delaney was an artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Delaney was known for his sketches and portraits of well-known African Americans such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Duke Ellington. |
Delaney, Joseph | b. November 13, 1904, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States d. November 20, 1991, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States Joseph Delaney was an artist, educator and brother of the modernist artist Beauford Delaney. Delaney held various positions with the Works Project Administration (WPA),including teaching art to inner city children and working on public murals. |
Delany, Bessie | b. September 3, 1891, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States d. September 25, 1995, Mount Vernon, New York, United States Bessie Delany was a civil rights pioneer and dentist. Over her 27 years in practice, she never raised her rates. Delany and her sister Sadie were the subjects of the book and Broadway play Having Our Say. With Sadie, she coauthored the memoir The Delany Sisters'Book of Everyday Wisdom. |
Delany, Clarissa Scott | b. 1901, Tuskegee, Alabama, United States d. 1927, Washington, D.C., Washington, United States Clarissa Scott Delany was a poet, teacher, and social worker during the Harlem Renaissance. She wrote book reviews and poems that include Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life. Shetaught at Washington’s Dunbar High School and gathered research data for the Women’s City Club of New York. |
DeLavallade, Carmen | b. March 6, 1931, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Carmen de Lavallade is a dancer and choreographer. She has danced and choreographed for Broadway. Her credits include being the principal dancer at John Butler's company and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and choreography credits, Porgy and Bess, Philadanco, and the Dance Theatre of Harlem. |
Devine, Loretta | b. August 21, 1949, Houston, Texas, United States Loretta Devine is a screen and stage actor. Her film credits include Waiting to Exhale, The Preacher’s Wife and Woman Thou Art Loosed. She appeared on Broadway with Dreamgirls and also featured in various TV shows, including Boston Public, Everybody Hates Chris, and Grey’s Anatomy. |
Dickerson, Dudley Henry, Jr. | b. November 27, 1906, Chickasha, Oklahoma, United States d. September 23, 1968, Lynwood, California, United States Dudley Henry Dickerson Jr. was an actor best known for his comedy roles. His movie credits include The Green Pastures, which had an all African-American cast, and the comedy Spooky Hooky. He also appeared in various Marx Brothers films, such as Day at the Races and Knute Rockne All American. |
Dickey, Eric Jerome | b. July 7, 1961, Memphis, Tennessee, United States d. January 3, 2021, Los Angeles, California, United States Eric Jerome Dickey was a novelist and short story writer best known for Sister, Sister, a novel about Black women, love, and friendship. He was the author of twenty-nine novels, including Milk in My Coffee and Friends and Lovers. He also wrote a six-issue comic book series for Marvel. |
Dixon, Willie | b. July 1, 1915, Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States d. January 29, 1992, Burbank, California Willie Dixon was a prolific blues songwriter with more than 500 compositions, blues musician and vocalist. He was the primary songwriter and producer for Chess Records, and his songs defined the Chicago blues sound. His best-known compositions are Hoochie Coochie Man and Little Red Rooster. |
Dobson, Tamara | b. May 14, 1947, Baltimore, Maryland, United States d. October 2, 2006, Baltimore, Maryland, United States Tamara Dobson was a model and actor. She shot for Vogue, Jet, and Essence and starred in the title role in Blaxploitation films Cleopatra Jones and Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold. Her other film credits include Come Back, Charleston Blue, and Fuzz. |
Dodds, Johnny | b. April 12, 1892, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. August 8, 1940, Chicago, Illinois, United States Johnny Dodds was a jazz clarinetist and alto saxophonist. A lyrically expressive jazz clarinetist, he is best known for his recordings under his own name with musicians such as King Oliver, Lovie Austin and Louis Armstrong. |
Dodds, Warren | b. December 24, 1898, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. February 14, 1959, Chicago, Illinois, United States Baby Dodds, born Warren Dodds, was a jazz drummer. He is regarded as one of the leading early jazz percussionists of the pre-big band era and one of the most important early jazz drummers. He played in King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band and Louis Armstrongs Hot Five and Hot Seven bands. |
Dodson, Angela P. | b. May 24, 1951, Beckley, West Virginia, United States Angela P. Dodson is a writer and editor. She is a contributing editor for Diverse: Issues in Higher Education andformer executive editor of Black Issues Book Review. She is the author of the historical non-fiction book Remember the Ladies: Celebrating Those Who Fought For Freedom at the Ballot Box. |
Donaldson, Jeff | b. December 15, 1932, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States d. February 29, 2004, Washington, DC, United States Jeff Donaldson was an artist, art historian, and critic who served as Vice President of the Board of Directors of The Barnes Foundation and was on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Afro-American Artists. |
Dorn, Michael | b. December 9, 1952, Luling, Texas, United States Michael Dorn is a screen and voice actor best known for playing the Klingon character Worf in the TV and film franchise Star Trek. He appeared in Jagged Edge and Demon Seed. His voice acting credits include the TV series Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Spider-Man: The New Animated Series. |
Dorsey, Thomas | b. July 1, 1899, Villa Rica, Georgia, United States d. January 23, 1993, Chicago, Illinois, United States Thomas A. Dorsey was a musician, composer, and Christian evangelist. He was influential in the development of early blues and 20th-century gospel music. He wrote 3,000 songs, including Peace in the Valley and Take My Hand, Precious Lord, which sold millions. |
Douglas, Aaron | b. May 26, 1899, Topeka, Kansas, United States d. February 2, 1979, Nashville, Tennessee, United States Aaron Douglas was one of leading visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance. He was part of the Harlem Artists Guild and as the chair of the art department at Fisk University. |
Dove, Rita | b. August 28, 1952, Akron, Ohio, United States Rita Dove is a poet and essayist. Her poetry collections include On the Bus with Rosa Parks and Thomas and Beulah, which is based on her grandparent's time in 1920s Ohio, United States. She was the U.S. poet laureate from 1993-1995 and is a professor of creative writing at the University of Virginia. |
Driskell, David | b. June 7, 1931, Eatonton, Georgia, United States d. April 1, 2020, Washington, DC, United States David C. Driskell was an artist and a world-leading scholar of African American art. Over the course of his life Driskell received 13 honorary doctoral degrees in art. |
Drury, Theodore | b. Date and year unknown, Kentucky, United States d. Date and year unknown, Place unknown Theodore Drury was a baritone singer, entrepreneur, and teacher. Born in Kentucky, he began his career in New York and the New England states. He was the first African American to organize a long-running grand opera company in the United States and was lauded by critics as the greatest “colored baritone” working in the US at the end of the nineteenth century. |
Due, Tananarive | b. January 5, 1966, Tallahassee, Florida, United States Tananarive Due is a writer and academic. Her novels include My Soul to Keep, The Between, and The Good House. She is a lecturer in Black horror and Afrofuturism at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an executive producer of the documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. |
DuMetz, Barbara | b. 1947, Charleston, West Virginia , United States Barbara DuMetz is a photographer who is known for working with African -American Celebrities, corporations and images of everyday life in African –American communities. Her work has been featured in Black magazines such as Essence and Black Enterprise. |
Duncan, Hank | b. 26 October 1894, Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States d. June 7, 1968, Long Island, New York. Hank Duncan was a dixieland jazz pianist. He was best known for his work with Fess Williams, King Oliver, Tommy Ladnier, Sidney Bechet, and many others. He also toured extensively with Fats Waller. |
Dunham, Katherine | b. June 22, 1909, Chicago, Illinois, United States d. May 21, 2006, New York City, United States Katherine Dunham was a dancer, choreographer and activist. She is known for developing the Dunham technique, which merges African, Caribbean and modern dance styles. 1929, she co-founded Ballet Negre and, later, the Negro Dance Group and founded the Katherine Dunham Dance Company in 1938. |
Dutrey, Honoré | b. 1894, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. July 21, 1935, Chicago, Illinois, United States Honoré Dutrey, was a jazz trombonist. He started playing the trombone in various bands in New Orleans. From 1920 to 1924, he played the trombone with bands and musicians includin King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Carrol Dickerson, Johnny Dodds and Louis Armstrong's Stompers. |
Dyson, Elnora | b. 1920, Beaufort, South Carolina, United States d. Date and place unknown, United States Elnora Dyson was a dancer. She danced in Whitey's Lindy Hoppers between 1938 and 1943, performing at the Roxy, the Apollo, and the Steel Pier in Atlantic City and with Ella Fitzgerald in Bayonne, New Jersey. |
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Eastland, James | b. November 28, 1904 , Doddsville, Mississippi, United States d. February 19, Doddsville, Mississippi, United States James Eastland was a lawyer, plantation owner, politician and segregationist. He was a leader of Southern resistance against racial integration. He spoke of African Americans as "an inferior race." He has been referred to as the "Godfather of Mississippi Politics and the "Voice of the White South". |
Easton, Sidney | b. October 2, 1885, Savannah, Georgia, United States d. December 24, 1971, United States Sidney Easton was a dancer, actor, performer, playwright and pianist. He was a member of the Easton Trio, working as a performer in minstrel shows, carnivals, and vaudeville. He had success collaborating with the singer Ethel Waters on the composition of the song, Go Back to Where You Stayed Last Night. |
Edney, Hazel Trice | b. February 13, 1960, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States Hazel Trice Edney is a journalist. She is editor-in-chief of Trice Edney News Wire and CEO of Trice Edney Communications. She was previously a staff writer for the Richmond Free Press and former editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service and Blackpressusa.com. |
Edwards, Edith "Baby" | b. July 3, 1922, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States d. 2000, United States Edith "Baby" Edwards was a rhythm tap and acrobatic dancer. She performed with Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Billie Holiday. Later on Broadway in Swingin' the Dream. In the 1940s, she partnered with Willie "Span" Joseph in an act called Spic and Span. |
Edwards, Junius | b. April 20, 1929, Alexandria, Louisiana, United States d. March 22, 2008, New York, New York, United States Junius Edwards was a writer, novelist, and copywriter. His works of fiction examine racial injustice in the southern states and the lives of African American soldiers. He wrote copy for various advertising agencies and founded his own advertising company, Junius Edwards Inc. |
Edwards, Melvin | b. 1937, Houston, Texas, United States Melvin Edwards is a contemporary artist, teacher, and abstract steel-metal sculptor. Edwards was the first African American sculptor to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. |
Edwards, Susie | b. December 1894, Florida, United States d. December 5, 1963, Chicago, Illinois, United States Susie Edwards was a vaudeville performer and dancer. She was in a comedy duo with her husband, Jodie Edwards. Their act, Butterbeans and Susie, was a combination of comic dances, marital quarrels and singing, which they toured with the Theatre Owners Booking Association (TOBA). |
Ellison, Ralph | b. March 1, 1913, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States d. April 16, 1994, New York City, New York, United States Ralph Ellison was a writer, scholar and literary critic recognised for numerous artistic achievements. He is best known for his first novel, Invisible Man. Ellison won numerous awards during his lifetime. He also wrote a series of essays on jazz, which was a passion of his. |
Emmett, Daniel Decatur | b. October 29, 1815, Mount Vernon, Ohio, United States d. 1904, Mount Vernon, Ohio, United States Daniel Decatur Emmett was an entertainer and a founder of the Virginia Minstrels, a group of performers who founded the entertainment form known as minstrel shows. He composed the song Dixie, which featured in a number of his minstrel shows. |
English, Ellia | b. Date and year unknown, Covington, Georgia, United States Ellia English is an actor, singer, writer, producer, and director. She has starred in stage productions of Haarlem Nocturne, Cotton Club Gala, and Dreamgirls. She is a former soloist in the New York Community Choir, and her TV credits include The Jamie Foxx Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm. |
Eubanks, W. Ralph | b. June 25, 1957, Collins, Mississippi, United States W. Ralph Eubanks is a writer and academic who wrote A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagined Literary Landscape. He is a visiting professor at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at Mississippi University and a former director of publishing for the Library of Congress. |
Europe, James Reese | b. February 22, 1881, Mobile, Alabama, United States d. 1919, Boston, Massachusetts, United States James Reese was a ragtime and early jazz bandleader, arranger, and composer. He was a significant figure in the transition from ragtime to jazz. In 1910, he organized the Clef Club, a union of African American musicians. He led the 369th Infantry band during World War I, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters. |
Evans, Mike | b. November 3, 1949, Salisbury, North Carolina, United States d. December 14, 2006, Twentynine Palms, California, United States Mike Evans was an actor who was best known for his role as Lionel Jefferson in the sitcom, All in the Family and its spinoff show The Jeffersons. He appeared on various TV shows, such as Walker, The Streets of San Francisco, Texas Ranger, and Rich Man, Poor Man. |
Everett, Francine | b. April 13, 1915, Louisburg, North Carolina, United States d. May 27, 1999, New York, New York, United States Francine Everett was an actor and singer best known for her starring role in race films and independently produced motion pictures with all Black casts for African-American audiences. Her film credits include Paradise in Harlem, Keep Punching, Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A., and Big Timers. |
Everett, Percival | b. December 22, 1956, Augusta, Georgia, United States Percival Everett is a writer and academic. His poetry collections include Re: f (gesture) and Swimming Swimmers Swimming. He is the author of the novels Erasure, and I Am Not Sidney Poitier and is a distinguished professor of English at the University of Southern California. |
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Fabio, Sarah Webster | b. January 20, 1928, Nashville, Tennessee, United States d. November 7, 1979, Pinole, California, United States Sarah Webster Fabio was a poet and scholar, who helped set up the first Black studies departments at California Arts College and California University. Her poetry collections include Black Talk and Rainbow Signs. She performed a poetry recital at the First World Festival of Negro Art, Dakar. |
Fields, Julia | b. January 21, 1938, Bessemer, Alabama, United States Julia Fields is a poet, fiction writer, and academic. She wrote her first published poem The Horizon age sixteen and has since produced several volumes of poetry, including East of Moonlight, A Summoning, A Shining, and Slow Coins. She is a lecturer and poet-in-residence at East Carolina University. |
Fishburne, Laurence | b. July 30, 1961, Augusta, Georgia, United States Laurence Fishburne is an actor, best known for playing Morpheus in the Matrix film trilogy. His other film credits include School Daze, King of New York, and Boyz ’n the Hood. He has also appeared in stage productions of Two Trains Running and Fences, and he starred as Thurgood Marshall in Thurgood. |
Fitzgerald, Ella | b. April 25, 1917, Newport News, Virginia, United States d. June 15, 1996, Beverly Hills, California, United States Ella Fitzgerald was a jazz singer, often called "Lady Ella" and "Queen of Jazz". Her career spanned six decades, and she became an international legend. Born in Virginia, she moved with her mother to New York as a young child. Fitzgerald went on to perform and record prolifically, working with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie and winning 14 Grammy Awards over the course of her career. |
Fleming, Thomas C. | b. November 29, 1907, Jacksonville, Florida, United States d. November 21, 2006, San Leandro, California, United States Thomas C. Fleming was a journalist, best known for his column "Reflections on Black History". He was a founding editor of the Reporter, which later merged with the Sun. He became a columnist and editor for the Sun-Reporter and later executive editor of Reporter Publishing. |
Fluellen, Joel | b. December 1, 1907, Monroe, Louisiana, United States d. February 2, 1990, Los Angeles, California, United States Joel Fluellen was an actor. He was a Screen Actors Guild member and submitted numerous resolutions urging the union to “use all its power to oppose discrimination against Negroes in the motion picture industry.” His film credits include The Jackie Robinson Story and The Great White Hope. |
Forbes, LaVetta | b. November 9, 1940, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States LaVetta Forbes is a fashion designer who has designed dresses for performers like Leslie Uggams, Lainie Kazan and the Supremes. In 1990, Forbes began publishing Beverly Hills 90212 a glossy bi-monthly magazine. |
Forrest, Edwin | b. March 9, 1806, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States d. December 12, 1872, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Edwin Forrest was an actor and blackface performer. He also engaged in “redding up” in the title role of Metamora; or, The Last of the Wampanoags, a play that portrayed Native Americans as savages and reinforced white supremacist beliefs about the inevitable demise of Native Americans. |
Franklin, Aretha | b. March 25, 1942, Memphis, Tennessee, United States d. August 16, 2018, Detroit, Michigan, United States Aretha Franklin is a singer, songwriter and pianist. She is one of the world's best-selling music artists and is referred to as the "Queen of Soul". Since 1966 her gospel vocals created hits with songs such as I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),Respect, and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman. |
Franklin, J. E. | b. August 10, 1937, Houston, Texas, United States J. E. Franklin is a writer, playwright, and educator best known for Black Girl, a play about an aspiring dancer, family, coming of age, and racial oppression. She is a former member of the Harlem Writers Guild and a contributor to the Black Scholar journal. |
Frazier, Teddy | b. October 7, 1907, Charleston, South Carolina, United States d. Date and place unknown, United States Teddy Frazier, born Daniel Frazier was a tap dancer. He danced in Tip, Tap, and Toe, a comedy act with Sammy Green and Raymond Winfield. They performed at the Paramount and the Palace Theatre. They appeared in the films, Scandals (1936),You Can't Have Everything (1937) and All by Myself (1943). |
Frederick J. Brown | b. February 6, 1945, Greensboro, Georgia, United States d. May 5, 2012, Scottsdale, Arizona, United States Frederick J. Brown was a painter who was known for his portraits of Blues musicians. Brown also taught part-time at the Brooklyn Museum, York College, and the School of the Visual Arts. |
Freeman, Al, Jr. | b. March 21, 1934, San Antonio, Texas, United States d. August 9, 2012, Washington, D.C., United States Al Freeman Jr. was an actor known for playing black separatist leader Elijah Muhammad in the movie Malcolm X. He appeared on stage in Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, Blues for Mister Charlie, and The Slave, and his TV roles include One Life to Live and Roots: The Next Generations. |
Freeman, Charles "Boko" | b. October 27, 1951, Houston, Texas, United States d. July 10, 2020, Place unknown Charles "Boko" Freeman was a visual artist, and community organizer also known as Brother Boko. Freeman, was a member of the original Black Panther Party in Houston, TX, and Los Angeles, CA. |
Freeman, Morgan | b. June 1, 1937, Memphis, Tennessee, United States Morgan Freeman is an actor whose career has spanned over five decades. He has also been a producer and narrator. Freeman's great, great grandparents were among the people forced to move from North Carolina to Mississippi. |
Fryar, Pearl | b. December 4, 1939, Clinton, North Carolina, United States Pearl Fryar is a topiary artist and founder of Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden Inc. and the Garden Conservancy. In 2006, the documentary about his life titled A Man Named Pearl was released to critical acclaim. |
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Gaines, Charles | b. 1944, Charleston, South Carolina, United States Charles Gaines is an award-winning systems-based conceptual artist and member of the CalArts School of Art faculty. Gaines is represented by Hauser & Wirth |
Gaines, Ernest J. | b. January 15, 1933, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, United States d. November 5, 2019, Oscar, Louisiana, United States Ernest J. Gaines was a novelist best known for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, narrated by a former slave. He was a writer-in-residence at Stanford and Louisiana Universities. He said, “I can’t write about San Francisco! But I can write about that little postage stamp of land in Louisiana.” |
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. | b. September 16, 1950, Keyser, West Virginia, United States Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a writer, academic, and documentary filmmaker. He is the author of Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow and professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. |
Gatson, Rico | b. 1966, Augusta, Georgia, United States Rico Gatson is a multimedia visual artist whose work explores themes of history, identity, popular culture and spirituality, through sculpture, painting, video, and public art projects. |
Gaye, Marvin | b. April 2, 1939, Washington D.C. United States d. April 1, 1984, Los Angeles, California, United States Marvin Gaye was soul singer and songwriter who helped craft to the Motwon sound of the later 1960s and early 1970s. Both his parents had migrated from the South when they met in Washington D.C. Gaye's father was born in Kentucky and moved tothe capital to pursue a career as a minister he would go on to murder his son during a heated argument in 1984. |
Gee, Lottie | b. August 17, 1886 Millboro, Virginia, United States d. January 13, 1973, Los Angeles, United States Lottie Gee was a dancer and entertainer. She is best known in the 1921 Broadway revue, Shuffle Along and Dabney's Ginger Girls, a duet with Effie King and in The Chocolate Dandies in 1924. |
Gilbert, Mercedes | b. July 26, 1894, Jacksonville, Florida, United States d. March 1, 1952, New York, New York, United States Mercedes Gilbert was an actor, poet, novelist, and songwriter. She starred in film, TV, and theater, including Eraserhead, and wrote an unpublished book of poems. She also wrote various blues songs, including I've Got the World in a Jug and three plays, of which only Environment survives. |
Gillespie, Dizzy | b. October 21, 1917, Cheraw, South Carolina, United States d. January 6, 1993, Englewood, New Jersey, United States Dizzy Gillespie, born John Birks Gillespie, was a jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer and singer. His career spanned the 1930s to the 1980s. In addition to creating bebop, he is considered one of the first musicians to infuse Afro-Cuban, Caribbean and Brazilian rhythms with jazz. |
Gilliam, Sam | b. November 30, 1933, Tupelo, Mississippi, United States d. June 25, 2022, Washington, D.C, United States Sam Gilliam was a painter and abstractionist associated with the Washington Color School. Gilliam was the first Black artist to represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennial in 1972. |
Gillmore, John | b. September 28, 1931, Summit, Mississippi, United States d. August 20, 1995, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States John Gilmore was a jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and percussionist. He was known for his work with the avant-garde Sun Ra from the 1950s to the 1990s. For the next four decades, he recorded and performed almost exclusively with Sun Ra, first as a trio and then in the band Arkestra. |
Gilpin, Charles Sidney | b. November 20, 1878, Richmond, Virginia, United States d. May 6, 1930, Eldridge Park, New Jersey, United States Charles Sidney Gilpin was an actor, producer, singer, and vaudevillian dancer, best known for his role as the title character of the play The Emperor Jones. He was a producer for New York’s Lafayette Players and appeared on stage in For His Daughter’s Honor, The Octoroon, and Within the Law. |
Giovanni, Nikki | b. June 7, 1943, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States Nikki Giovanni is a poet and scholar. Her collected poems include Black Feeling Black Talk Black Judgement, Bicycles: Love Poems, and Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid. She is a distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, where she was previously a professor of Black studies and English. |
Goldberg, Whoopi | b. November 13, 1955, New York, New York, United States Whoopi Goldberg, or Caryn Elaine Johnson, is a celebrated comedian, actor and television personality. She also wrote the literary series Sugar Plum Ballerinas. Her paternal grandfather was born in Georgia, but later settled in Harlem. |
Gordon, Carl | b. January 20, 1932, Goochland, Virginia, United States d. July 20, 2010, Jetersville, Virginia, United States Carl Gordon was an actor who achieved late-career success. He is best known for his TV role as Andrew Emerson in Roc, a situational comedy about a working-class black family from Baltimore. He also appeared in a stage production of The Piano Lesson and the film The Brother From Another Planet. |
Gordon, Eugene | b. November 23, 1891, Oviedo, Florida, United States d. March 18, 1974, Place unknown Eugene Gordon was an author and journalist who wrote for the Boston Daily Post, Opportunity magazine, and the Daily Worker. He was cofounder of the Saturday Evening Quill Club, a Black-organized academic group. He cofounded the Boston John Reed Club and edited its magazine Leftward. |
Gray Ward, Val | b. August 21, 1932, Mound Bayou, Mississippi, United States Val Gray Ward is an actor. She is a leading advocate of Chicago’s Black Arts Movement. She has produced and directed various plays, including The Amen Corner, Welcome To Black River, and Five On The Black Hand Side, and she has acted in Harriet Tubman, Sister Sonji, and I Am A Black Woman. |
Green, Chuck | b. November 6, 1919, Fitzgerald, Georgia, United States d. March 7, 1997, Oakland, California, United States Chuck Green was a tap dancer. A talent agent spotted him as a child and took him to New York, where he studied tap and performed with James "Chuckles" Walker as Chuck and Chuckle. He was known as a melodious and graceful tap dancer initially by vaudeville audiences and toured into the 1990s. |
Green, Lil | b. December 22, 1919, Mississippi, United States d. April 14, 1954, Chicago, Illinois, United States Lil Green was a blues singer and songwriter. Her sensual soprano voice made her a leading female rhythm and blues singer of the 1940s. She received notable success with her composition, Romance in the Dark, which many artists, such as Dinah Washington and Nina Simone, later covered. |
Green, Sammy | b. 1907, Eutawville, South Carolina, United States d. 1996, Kent, England, United Kingdom Sammy Green was a tap dancer in Tip, Tap, and Toe, a tap-dance comedy act with Teddy Frazier and Raymond Winfield. They performed at the Paramount Theatre and the Palace Theatre for Eddie Cantor. They appeared in the films, Scandals (1936),You Can't Have Everything (1937) and All by Myself (1943). |
Greenfield, Eloise | b. May 17, 1929, Parmele, North Carolina, United States d. August 5, 2021, Washington, D.C., Washington, United States Eloise Greenfield was a children’s author and poet. A member of the DC Black Writer’s Workshop, her poetry collections include The Great Migration: Journey to the North and Honey, I Love, and Other Love Poems. She also wrote biographical books on Paul Robeson, Rosa Parks, and Mary McLeod Bethune. |
Grier, Pam | b. May 26, 1949, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States Pam Grier is an actor best known as the star of Blaxploitation films Coffy, Foxy Brown, Friday Foster, and Sheba, Baby. She is most celebrated for her performance in Jackie Brown and has featured in television and stage productions of Roots: The Next Generations. |
Guy, Buddy | b. July 30, 1936, Lettsworth, Louisiana, United States Buddy Guy, born George Guy, is a blues guitarist and singer. Born in Louisiana, it was after moving to Chicago that Guy was discovered by legedary guitarist and singer Muddy Waters. Guy remains one of the last links to this Chicago blues tradition, having played with Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter and Koko Taylor. |
Guy, Edna | b. 1907, Summit, New Jersey, United States d. 1983, Fort Worth, Texas, United States Edna Guy was a dancer and choreographer. In 1924, she was the first African American to study professional dance. She later choreographed Negro spirituals performed by the Harlem Girl Scouts at Carnegie Hall for the Pageant for World Peace and with Katherine Dunham in the Drama of the Negro Dance. |
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Hairston, Jester | b. July 9, 1901, Belews Creek, North Carolina, United States d. January 18, 2000, Los Angeles, California, United States Jester Hairston was composer and actor. He composed the score for the film Lost Horizons and appeared, often uncredited, in various TV shows and films. These included Tarzan, To Kill a Mockingbird, In the Heat of the Night, Lady Sings the Blues, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, and Being John Malkovich. |
Hall, Albert | b. November 10, 1937, Brighton, Alabama, United States Albert Hall is an actor best known for his role as chief Phillips in Apocalypse Now. His other film credits include the Blaxploitation picture Willie Dynamite, the TV movie Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Malcolm X. He has made appearances in the TV shows Men of a Certain Age and Ally McBeal. |
Hall, Irma P. | b. June 3, 1935, Beaumont, Texas, United States Irma P. Hall is an actor and playwright. She is a co-founder of the Dallas Minority Repertory Theatre and wrote the play Gentle Fire. Her film credits include The Ladykillers and Collateral, and she has appeared in stage productions of Black Girl, Steppin’ Out, and A Raisin in the Sun. |
Hampton, Lionel | b. April 20, 1908, Louisville, Kentucky, United States d. August 31, 2002, New York City, New York, United States Lionel Hampton was a jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist and bandleader. In 1930 he made his first vibraphone recording, accompanying Louis Armstrong. He was known for showmanship and the rhythmic vitality of his playing. He worked with musicians Quincy Jones, Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus. |
Hancock, John | b. March 4, 1941, Hazen, Arkansas, United States d. October 12, 1992, Los Angeles, California, United States John Hancock was an actor known for Airplane II: The Sequel, The In-Laws and Tank. He co-starred in the TV comedy series Love & War, playing the role of bartender Ike Johnson. He also appeared in several television shows, including Pacific Station and the TV legal drama L.A. Law. |
Handy, William | b. November 16, 1873, Florence, Alabama, United States d. March 28, 1958, New York City, New York, United States W. C. Handy was a composer and musician. He was one of the most influential songwriters, having been the first to publish music in the blues form, providing a new level of exposure and popularity. His most successful songs were Memphis Blues and Beale Street Blues. |
Harding, Rachel Elizabeth | b. 1962, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Rachel Elizabeth Harding is a historian, poet, and essayist. She is an associate professor of Indigenous spiritual traditions at the University of Colorado Denver. She wrote A Refuge in Thunder: Candomblé and Alternative Spaces of Blackness and Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism, and Mothering. |
Hardison, Ruth Inge | b. February 3, 1914, Portsmouth, Virginia, United States d. March 23, 2016, New York, New York, United States Ruth Inge Hardison was a sculptor, artist, and photographer who was known for creating bronze bust of notable American figures. Hardison sculpted a cast-iron collection in the 1960s that she called “Negro Giants in History,” which included George Washington Carver, W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson and Harriet Tubman. |
Harper, Leonard | b. April 9, 1899, Birmingham, Alabama, United States d. February 4, 1943, Harlem, New York, United States Leonard Harper was a producer and choreographer. He was a leading figure in transforming Harlem into a cultural center during the 1920s working in burlesque, vaudeville and Broadway. As a dancer and choreographer, he worked with Ruby Keeler, Fred Astaire, and the Marx Brothers. |
Harris, Theresa | b. Date and year unknown, Houston, Texas, United States d. 1985, Inglewood, California, United States Theresa Harris was an actor and singer who was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and lobbied for dignified roles for African-American actors. She played the title role in a musical production of Irene. Her film credits include Baby Face, Jezebel, and The Flame of New Orleans. |
Harry, Jackée | b. August 14, 1956, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States Jackée Harry is an actor best known for her role as Sandra Clark in the NBC sitcom 227. She has appeared on stage in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, The Boys From Syracuse, and The Cleanup Woman. Her TV credits include Another World, Everybody Hates Chris, The Royal Family, and Sister, Sister. |
Harsley, Alex | b. 1938, Newport, South Carolina, United States Alex Harsley is a self-taught photographer and a curator at the 4th Street Photo Gallery and The Minority Photographers non-profit since the early 1970's. He was the first black photographer for the New York City District Attorney. |
Hartman, Eddie "Stumpy" | b. Date unknown, Ocean City, New Jersey, United States d. Date unknown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Eddie "Stumpy" Hartman was a tap dancer and comedian. He was a founding member of the tap comedy team Stump and Stumpy with partner James "Stump" Cross. They capitalized on their contrasting heights and personalities. After his tragic early death in 1951, Harold Cromer took the role of Stumpy. |
Hartwell, Peggie | b. January 9, 1939, Springfield, South Carolina, United States Peggie Hartwell is a quilter, educator and one of the founding members of the National Chapter of the Women of Color Quilters Network (WCQN). Hartwell's artwork is greatly influenced by Jazz, Modern Primitive and Modern dance. |
Hathaway, Isaac Scott | b. April 4, 1872, Lexington, Kentucky, United States d. March 12, 1967, Birmingham, Alabama, United States Isaac Hathaway was an educator and artist most known for creating more than 100 busts and masks of prominent African Americans. Hathaway established the Ceramics Department at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. |
Hayden, Palmer | b. January 15, 1890, Widewater, Virginia, United States d. February 18 1973, New York, New York, United States Palmer Hayden was a painter associated with the Harlem Resistance. , Hayden worked on the United States Treasury Art Project and the W.P.A. Art Project from 1934 to 1940. He was known for producing paintings that represented narrative scenes of New York’s urban life. |
Hayes, Cleo | b. August 18, 1914, Greenville, Mississippi, United States d. May 23, 2012, New York City, New York, United States Cleo Hayes was a dancer, actress, and comedian. She was a member of Apollo Theater Rockettes, The Silver Belles and Cotton Club dancer, toured with Cab Calloway, and starred in the film Stormy Weather. |
Hayes, Edgar | b. Date and year unknown, Lexington, Kentucky, United States d. June 28, 1979, San Bernardino, California, United States Edgar Hayes was a jazz pianist and bandleader. He was most famous for recording a version of the song Stardust and the original recording of In the Mood, later covered by Glenn Miller; he recorded both songs in 1938. |
Hayes, Roland | b. June 3, 1887, Curryville, Georgia, United States d. January 1, 1977, Boston, Massachusetts, United States Roland Hayes was a tenor and composer. His career spanned over thirty years, and he was a masterful interpreter of classical songs and black spirituals. He was the first African-American man to win international fame as a concert performer and in major concert houses in America. |
Hayes, Vertis | b. May 20, 1911, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. May 3 2000, Place unknown Vertis Hayes was an artist and founding member of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters in 1969. During his career he produced murals for the Harlem Hospital Center. |
Haynes, Daniel | b. Date and year unknown, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. 1954, Place unknown Daniel Haynes was an actor best known for his role as a preacher in the film Hallelujah. He appeared in stage productions of Bottom of the Cup, Brother Elijah, The Green Pastures, and Show Boat. His movie credits include John Smith and So Red the Rose. |
Haysbert, Dennis | b. June 2, 1954, San Mateo, California, United States Dennis Haysbert is an actor best known for his roles in films such as Love Field, Heat, Waiting to Exhale, and Far from Heaven. On TV, he has played Sergeant Major Jonas Blane in The Unit, God in Lucifer, and President David Palmer in the action drama 24. |
Heard, Henry "Crip" | b. November 11, 1924, Memphis, Tennessee, United States d. September 11, 1991, Chicago, Illinois, United States Henry "Crip" Heard was a dancer. In the late 1940s and '50s, he performed in black vaudeville theatres. Unique to his peers, performing as a double amputee, dancing with only one leg and one arm. He walked using a crutch and danced both with and without. |
Heath, Percy | b. 1923, Wilmington, North Carolina d. 2005, Southampton, New York, United States Percy Heath was an American bassist who, with his brothers, formed the jazz group the Heath Brothers. Heath later became a part of group the Modern Jazz Quartet. Living in New York in the 1940s, Heath worked with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie. |
Hegamin, Lucille | b. November 29, 1894, Macon, Georgia, United States d. March 1, 1970, New York City, New York, United States Lucille Hegamin was a singer and blues recording artist. She was often billed as "The Georgia Peach" . She worked with Tony Jackson, Jelly Roll Morton and toured in the musical Shuffle Along. Her best-known song is the Arkansas Blues. |
Henderson, Angelo | b. October 14, 1962, Louisville, Kentucky, United States d. February 15, 2014, Pontiac, Michigan, United States Angelo Henderson was a journalist, radio broadcaster, and church minister. He won the Pulitzer prize for an article detailing the experiences of a group involved in a drug store robbery. He was deputy Detroit bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal and a deacon at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church. |
Henderson, Fletcher | b. December 18, 1897, Cuthbert, Georgia, United States d. December 29, 1952, New York City, United States Fletcher Henderson was a pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer. He was one of the most prolific musical arrangers and, with Duke Ellington, essential in the development of big-band jazz and swing music. He is considered one of jazz's most influential arrangers and bandleaders. |
Hendricks, Barkley L. | b. April 16, 1945, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States d. April 18, 2017, New London, Connecticut , United States Barkley L. Hendricks was a contemporary visual artists who was best known for creating life-sized painted oil portraits of Black Americans living in urban areas. |
Higginbotham, J. C. | b. May 11, 1906, Georgia, United States d. May 26, 1973, New York City, New York, United States J. C. Higginbotham was an American jazz trombonist. In the 1930s and 1940s, he played with many premier swing bands with figures including Luis Russell, Benny Carter, Red Allen, and Fletcher Henderson. He recorded extensively both as a sideman and as a leader. |
Hill, Bertha | b. March 15, 1905, Charleston, South Carolina, United States d. May 7, 1950, New York City, United States Bertha Hill "Chippie" was a dancer, blues and vaudeville singer. In 1919, her career began as a dancer working with singer Ethel Waters. She also performed with Ma Rainey as part of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and later established her dance act and toured on the T.O.B.A circuit in the early 1920s. |
Hill, Leslie Pinckney | b. May 14, 1880, Lynchburg, Virginia, United States d. February 15, 1960, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Leslie Pinckney Hill was a Harlem Renaissance writer and educator. He wrote the poetry collection The Wings of Oppression and the play Toussaint L’ Ouverture: A Dramatic History. He was the principal of Manassas Industrial Institute and president emeritus of Cheyney Training School for Teachers. |
Hinton, Milt | b. June 23, 1910, Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States d. December 19, 2000, New York City, New York, United States Milt Hinton was a jazz double bassist. He was known as a master of slap bass and highly versatile. His recording career lasted over 60 years. He worked with the violinist Eddie South, Cab Calloway’s band, and toured with Louis Armstrong and Count Basie. |
Hogan, Ernest | b. 1865, Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States d. May 20, 1909, Lakewood, New Jersey, United States Ernest Hogan was a musician and minstrel performer known as the “Father of Ragtime.” He wrote the song “All Coons Look Alike to Me.” The lyrics include demeaning stereotypes of African-Americans. The song was highly popular with racist Whites, who created imitations. Hogan later regretted the song. |
Holiday, Billie | b. April 7, 1915, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States d. July 17, 1959, New York, United States Billie Holiday, born Elinore Harris, and nicknamed "Lady Day", was one of the most influential jazz singers of all time. Born in Philadelphia, she grew up in Baltimore, then moved to Harlem in New York in 1929 as her mother was looking for a better job. From the 1930s to the 1950s she achieved mainstream success with her iconic versions of Strange Fruit, The Man I Love, and God Bless the Child. |
Hooker, John Lee | b. August 22, 1917, Mississippi, United States d. June 21, 2001, Los Altos, California, United States John Lee Hooker was a blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was one of the most distinctive artists in the electric blues genre. He developed his driving-rhythm boogie style and was best known for Boogie Chillen, Crawling King Snake, Dimples and Boom Boom. |
Hooks, Bell | b. September 25, 1952 Hopkinsville, Kentucky, United States d. December 15, 2021, Berea Kentucky, United States Bell Hooks was a writer, scholar, activist, and intersectional feminist. She wrote Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism and Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, and taught African and Afro-American studies at Yale University and English at the City College of New York. |
Horne, Lena | b. June 30, 1917 , Brooklyn, New York, United States d. May 9, 2010, New York City, United States Lena Horne was a dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights, activist. She started dancing in Cotton Club in Harlem with Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. Her career lastest over seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. |
Howell, Bill | b. September 12, 1942, Jefferson City, Tennessee, United States d. July 25, 1975, New York, United States Bill Howell was a graphic designer, a founding member of the Weusi Artist Collective and co-founder of the Pamoja Studio Gallery in New York in 1967. Howell was art director for The New Lafayette Theatre in New York and its Black Theater magazine. |
Hoyt W. Fuller | b. September 10, 1923, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. May 11, 1981, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Hoyt W. Fuller was an editor, educator, and critic who contributed to Chicago’s Black Arts Movement. He was the author of the manifesto Towards a Black Aesthetic and managing editor of Black World. He taught Afro-American literature at Wayne State, Northwestern, and Indiana Universities. |
Hudson, Cheryl Willis | b. April 7, 1948, Portsmouth, Virginia, United States Cheryl Willis Hudson is a publisher and author. She is cofounder, vice president, and editorial director of Just Us Books, a publisher of Black-interest books for children and young adults. She is the author of We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices and Bright Eyes, Brown Skin. |
Hughley, D. L. | b. March 6, 1963, Portsmouth, Virginia, United States D. L. Hughley is a standup comedian, actor, and political commentator. He has appeared on various TV shows, such as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, HBO Comedy Half-Hour, and Sister, Sister. His film credits include Inspector Gadget, Scary Movie 3, Soul Plane, and Spy School. |
Hunter, Alberta | b. April 1, 1895, Memphis, Tennessee, United States d. October 17, 1984, New York City, New York, United States Alberta Hunter was a jazz and blues singer and songwriter. She is known for her rich contralto voice. She recorded prolifically during the 1920s and her best-known song is Downhearted Blues with Lovie Austin and Cake Walking Babies (From Home), recorded with Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. |
Hurston, Zora Neale | b. January 7, 1891, Notasulga, Alabama, United States d. January 28, 1960, Fort Pierce, Florida, United States Zora Neale Hurston was a writer of the Harlem Renaissance movement. She was the author of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. She also wrote Mules and Men, an anthropological study of African American folkways in Florida, and Tell My Horse, a Caribbean travelogue and survey of Voodooism. |
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Jackson, "Baby" Laurence | b. Feb 24, 1921, Baltimore, Maryland, United States d. April 2, 1974, Manhattan, New York, United States "Baby" Laurence Jackson was a jazz tap dancer. He developed the art of tap dancing by treating the body as a percussive instrument and profoundly influenced dancers in the second half of the twentieth Century. He danced with the big bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Art Tatum, and Charlie Mingus. |
Jackson, Mahalia | b. October 26, 1911, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. January 27, 1972, Chicago, Illinois, United States Mahalia Jackson, born Mahala Jackson, was a gospel singer renowned for her powerful contralto voice. She became an international success with Move On Up a Little Higher, the highest-selling gospel single in history. She sang at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. |
Jackson, Preston | b. January 3, 1902, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. November 12, 1983, Blytheville, Arkansas, United States Preston Jackson, born James Preston McDonald, was a jazz trombonist. He notably played for the reception of Louis Armstrong and Lil Hardin Armstrong in Chicago. In addition to playing with Dave Peyton, Erskine Tate, and Johnny Dodds's last recordings in 1940. |
James, Leon | b. April 27, 1913, New York City, United States d. July 30, 1970, New York City, United States Leon James was a Lindy Hop dancer. He danced in Whitey's Lindy Hoppers with his partner Willa Mae Ricker. In 1935 he won the Harvest Moon Ball with Edith Matthews and later partnered with Al Minns to promote the dances they helped to pioneer. He appeared in films, A Day at the Races and The Spirit Moves. |
Jamison, Judith | b. May 10, 1943, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Judith Jamison is a modern dancer and choreographer who founded the dance group The Jamison Project. She is now the artistic director emerita at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Jamison is known for focusing on representing strong female characters in her choreography. One of her most notable performances is her solo role in Cry by Alvin Ailey. |
Jarrell, Wadsworth Aikens | b. November 20, 1929, Albany, Georgia, United States Wadsworth Aikens Jarrell is a painter, sculptor and printmaker and co-founded AFRICOBRA: African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists. Jarrell also became involved in the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) and In the late 1960s he opened WJ Studio and Gallery with his wife. |
Jeannette, Gertrude | b. November 28, 1914, Urbana, Arkansas, United States d. April 4, 2018, New York, New York, United States Gertrude Jeannette was an actor and director who founded the theater company the H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players (Harlem Artists Development League Especially for You). She appeared on Broadway in Amen Corner and The Skin of Our Teeth. Her film credits include Cotton Comes to Harlem and Shaft. |
Jennings, Brent | b. 1951, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States Brent Jennings is an actor with notable performances in TV shows like Brooklyn Bridge, Lodge 49, Insecure, AllAmerican, and All Rise. His film credits include Moneyball and Brubaker. He has also played private Tony Smalls in a stage production of A Soldier’s Play. |
Jennings, Wilmer Angier | b. 1910, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. 1990, Place unknown Wilmer Angier Jennings was a printmaker, painter, and innovative jeweler. Jennings worked with Rhode Island WPA to create wood-engraved prints which depicted images of economic and social hardships experienced by African-Americans. |
Jerkins, Morgan | b. 1992, Place unknown Morgan Jerkins is a writer and editor who grew up in New Jersey, United States. She is the author of Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots. She is the senior editor of ZORA, a publication that centers on the writing of women of color. |
Jessye, Eva | b. January 20, 1895, Coffeyville, Kansas, United States d. February 21, 1992, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States Eva Jessye was a conductor and the first African-American woman to receive international distinction as a professional choral conductor. She collaborated in many groundbreaking works, directing her choir and serving as musical director with George Gershwin on his opera Porgy and Bess in 1935. |
Jewell, Terri L. | b. October 4, 1954, Louisville, Kentucky, United States d. November 26, 1995, Place unknown Terri L. Jewell was a writer, poet, and Black lesbian activist. She was author of Our Names are Many: The Black Woman’s Book of Days, editor of the anthology The Black Woman’s Gumbo Ya-ya: Quotations by Black Women, a member of League of Lesbian Writers, and cofounder of the Black Lesbian Network. |
Joans, Ted | b. July 4, 1928, Cairo, Illinois, United States d. April 25, 2003, Vancouver, Canada Ted Joans was a poet who wrote more than thirty books of poetry, prose, and collage including Beat Poems and Funky Jazz Poems. In addition to writing poetry, he was a visual artist and musician, often incorporating jazz music and African American Surrealism into his poetry. |
John Oliver Killens | b. January 14, 1916, Macon, Georgia, United States d. October 27, 1987, New York, New York, United States John Oliver Killens was a writer and activist known for his contribution to the Black Arts movement. He was the author of the novel Youngblood, founding chair of the Harlem Writers Guild, cofounder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, and vice president of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters. |
Johnson-Calloway, Marie | b. April 10, 1920, Pimlico, Maryland, United States d. February 11, 2018, Place unknown Marie Johnson-Calloway was a painter, mix-media artist, educator and former president of the San Jose chapter of the NAACP. Johnson-Calloway received awards from the Women’s Caucus for the arts of Northern California, the Pioneers of African American Art, and the National Women’s Caucus for the Arts. |
Johnson, Angela | b. June 18, 1961, Tuskegee, Alabama, United States Angela Johnson is a writer of children's and young adult books. Her writing celebrates African-American families, history, and relationships. She is the author of Tell Me a Story, Mama, Toning the Sweep, and Sweet, Hereafter. Her poetry collections include Gone from Home and Running Back to Ludie. |
Johnson, Budd | b. December 14, 1910, Dallas, Texas, United States d. October 20, 1984, Kansas City, Missouri, United States Budd Johnson, born Albert J. Johnson III, was a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist. He worked extensively with Earl Hines, Ben Webster, Benny Goodman, Big Joe Turner, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, Count Basie, and Billie Holiday, among others. |
Johnson, David | b. August 3, 1926, Jacksonville, Florida, United States David Johnson is a photographer who is known for taking photos of figures of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and depicting portrayal of society, urban life, and the jazz culture of San Francisco's Fillmore District in the 1940s and 1950s. |
Johnson, Georgia Douglas | b. September 10, 1880, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. May 15, 1966, Washington, D.C., Washington, United States Georgia Douglas Johnson was a poet and playwright of the Harlem Renaissance. Her poems appeared in Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She was the author of the poetry collection The Heart of a Woman, and her plays include Blue Blood and Plumes. |
Johnson, Hall | b. March 12, 1888, Athens, Georgia, United States d. April 30, 1970, New York City, United States Hall Johnson was a violinist, composer and arranger of African-American spiritual music. In 1921, he played in the orchestra for the musical Shuffle Along. In 1925 he formed the Hall Johnson Negro Choir, and his choral arrangements would feature in more than thirty Hollywood films. |
Johnson, James Weldon | b. June 17, 1871, Jacksonville, Florida, United States d. June 26, 1938, Wiscasset, Maine, United States James Weldon Johnson was a writer and civil rights leader. A member of the Harlem Renaissance, he wrote the poetry collection God's Trombones and the novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. He was also executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. |
Johnson, John Rosamond | b. August 11, 1873, Jacksonville, Florida, United States d. November 11, 1954, New York City, New York. John Rosamond Johnson was a composer and singer during the Harlem Renaissance. He is noted as the composer of the hymn Lift Every Voice and Sing, written as a poem by this brother NAACP leader, James Weldon Johnson. It is often referred to as The Black National Anthem. |
Johnson, Louis | b. March 19, 1930, in Statesville, North Carolina, United States d. March 31, 2020, Manhattan, New York, United States Louis Johnson was a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and director. He performed on Broadway in the Four Saints in Three Acts (1952),My Darlin'Aida (1952),and House of Flowers (1955). He choreographed ballets for the New York City Ballet Club, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Philadanco. |
Johnson, Malvin Gray | b. 28 January 1896, Greensboro, North Carolina, United States d. 4 October 1934, New York, New York, United States Malvin Gray Johnson was a painter who was active during the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s. Johnson participated in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP),in 1934. |
Johnson, Virginia | b. 1950, Washington, D.C ., United States Virginia Johnson is a ballet dancer, choreographer, and journalist. In 1969 she became a founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem and was promoted to principal dancer. She went on to found Pointe Magazine. |
Johnson, William | b. March 18, 1901, Florence, South Carolina, United States d. April 13, 1970, Central Islip, New York, United States William H. Johnson was an award-winning artist who taught at the Harlem Community Art Center. Johnson was known for creating powerful scenes of African American life. |
Johnson, William Manuel | b. August 10, 1872, Talladega, Alabama, United States d. December 3, 1972, New Braunfels, Texas, United States William Manuel Johnson was a jazz bassist, guitarist, and banjo player. He is considered the father of the "slap" double bass playing. In the 1920s, he assembled King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. He made many recordings in Chicago in the late 1920s, most notably the Dippermouth Blues. |
Jolson, Al | b. May 26, 1886, Seredžius, Lithuania d. October 23, 1950, San Francisco, California, United States Al Jolson, born of Asa Yoelson, was a singer and blackface comedian. He is known for his song "My Mammy,” a tribute to an imagined mammy, a slave used as a surrogate mother. He was a member of Lew Dockstader’s White minstrel troupe, frequently performing in burnt-cork makeup or blackface. |
Jolson, Al | b. June 9, 1886, Sredniki, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire d. October 23, 1950, San Francisco, California, United States Al Jolson, born Eizer Yoelson, was a vaudevillian, comedian and actor. He was one of the United State's most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s and "the king of blackface performers." |
Jones, Bob, Sr. | b. October 30, 1883, Place unknown d. January 16, 1968, Greenville, South Carolina, University Bob Jones Sr. was an evangelist and radio broadcaster who founded a segregated university in South Carolina. Printed and widely distributed, in his sermon Is Segregation Scriptural?, he declared, “God never meant for America to be a melting pot to rub out the line between the nations.” |
Jones, Buster | b. 1943, Paris, Tennessee, United States d. 2014, North Hollywood, California, United States Buster Jones, born Edward L. Jones, was an actor who voiced Black Vulcan on the superhero cartoon series Super Friends. He also voiced various TV cartoon characters, including Blaster in The Transformers, Doc in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, and Winston Zeddemore in The Real Ghostbusters. |
Jones, James Earl | b. January 17, 1931, Arkabutla, Mississippi, United States James Earl Jones is an actor who voiced Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy and Mufasa in the animated Disney film The Lion King. He has appeared in stage productions of The Great White Hope, the two-character play Paul Robeson, and William Shakespeare’s Othello. |
Jones, Jedda | b. August 8, 1952, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Jedda Jones is a comedian and actor. She has performed on The Sunday Comics and Chez Whoopi and appeared in acting roles in Sister, Sister, Murphy Brown, and Coach. Her film credits include Ray, Treasure n tha Hood, The Final Destination, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orlean, and Snatched. |
Jones, Lawrence Arthur | b. 1910, Lynchburg, Virginia, United States d. 1996, Place unknown Lawrence Arthur Jones was an artist, teacher and printmaker known for creating murals which depicted African-American life and oppression. Lawrence Jones was involved in creating the first black community art center in Chicago, the South Side Community Art Center. |
Jones, Leslie | b. September 7, 1967, Memphis, Tennessee, United States Leslie Jones is a comedian and actor who gained fame through the comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live. She has starred in the movies Trainwreck, Sing, Top Five, Lottery Ticket, Coming 2 America, Masterminds, The Angry Birds Movie 2, and the 2016 remake of Ghostbusters. |
Jones, Richard M. | b. June 13, 1892, Donaldsonville, Louisiana, United States d. December 1945, Chicago, United States Richard M. Jones was a jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and record producer. He played with various bands throughout the 1920s, and numerous songs bear his name as the author, composing jazz standards such as Trouble In Mind and Riverside Blues. |
Joplin, Scott | b. Date unknown, Linden, Texas United States d. April 1, 1917, New York City, New York, United States Scott Joplin was a composer and pianist. He is often called the King of Ragtime due to the fame he achieved for his ragtime compositions. He wrote over 40 ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. His most famous, the Maple Leaf Rag, became the genre's first and most influential hit. |
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Kaufman, Bob | b. April 18, 1925, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. January 12, 1986, San Francisco, California, United States Bob Kaufman was a Beat poet who cofounded Beatitude magazine. His poetry collections include Watch My Tracks and Solitudes Crowded With Loneliness. In 1963, he took a vow of silence, not speaking until 1975. He said, “I want to be anonymous . . . my ambition is to be completely forgotten.” |
Kelly, Paula | b. October 21, 1942, Jacksonville, Florida, United States d. February 8, 2020, Whittier, California, United States Paula Kelly was a dancer, actor and choreographer in films, television and theatre. Her Broadway credits include Something More! (1964),and The Dozens (1969. She is recognized for her role in the film Sweet Charity and for an Emmy nomination for her turn on 'Night Court. |
Kennedy, Geraldine | b. July 12, 1930, North Carolina, United States d. November 16, 2017, United States Geraldine Kennedy was the manager of The Silver Belles, the female tap dance troupe. She wanted to ensure Chorus girls received recognition for their choreography in creating a new show every week and was inspired to form the group while working as a road manager for Sister Sledge. |
Keppard, Freddie | b. February 27, 1890, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. July 15, 1933, Chicago, Illinois, United States Freddie Keppard was a jazz cornetist. He was an influential early jazz pioneer. His band, the Original Creole Orchestra, toured the Vaudeville circuit and came to define a music genre not yet known as jazz. He made all his recordings in Chicago from 1923 to 1927 as Freddie Keppard’s Jazz Cardinals. |
Kilpatrick, James J. | b. November 1, 1920, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States d. August 15, 2010, Washington, D.C., Washington, United States James J. Kilpatrick was a newswriter and segregationist. He was editor of the Richmond News Leader. On African-American men, he wrote “He is still digging the ditch. He is down at the gin mill shooting craps. He is lying limp in the middle of the sidewalk, yelling he is equal. The hell he is equal.” |
King, Woodie, Jr., | b. July 27, 1937, Baldwin Springs, Alabama, United States Woodie King, Jr. is a dramatist, actor, and writer. He is the founder of the New Federal Theatre and the National Black Touring Circuit and the former cultural arts director of Mobilization for Youth. He featured in the films Serpico and Together for Days and co-edited Black Drama Anthology. |
Kirksey-Floyd, Dianne | b. 1950, Eutaw, Alabama, United States d. September 1, 2020, New York, New York, United States Dianne Kirksey-Floyd was an actor, producer, director, and writer. She appeared in a theater production of Urban Transition: Loose Blossoms and such films as Rich Kids and The Marva Collins Story. Her producer credits include Sweet Dreams, Momma, and Bama’s Black Babies Are Dying. |
Kitt, Eartha | b. January 17, 1927, North, South Carolina, United States d. December 25, 2008, Weston, Connecticut, United States Eartha Kitt was a singer and actor. Her best-known songs include “C’est Si Bon,” “Santa Baby,” and “I Want to Be Evil.” She appeared in stage productions of New Faces of 1952 and TimeRuns, an Orson Welles adaptation of Faust. Her film credits include St. Louis Blues and Anna Lucasta. |
Knight, Etheridge | b. April 19, 1931, Corinth, Mississippi, United States d. March 10, 1991, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States Etheridge Knight was a poet, educator, and member of the Black Arts Movement. His debut volume was Poems from Prison. He wrote Belly Song and Other Poems, and Born of a Woman. He was the editor of Black Voices From Prison and a writer-in-residence at Pittsburgh, Hartford, and Lincoln Universities. |
Komunyakaa, Yusef | b. April 29, 1947, Bogalusa, Louisiana, United States Yusef Komunyakaa is a writer and scholar known for his poems on his experience of the Vietnam War. His poetry collections include Neon Vernacular, Magic City, and Dien Cai Dau. He also wrote the prose work Blues Notes. He is a professor of English at New York University. |
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LaChanze | b. December 16, 1961, St. Augustine, Florida, United States LaChanze, born Rhonda LaChanze Sapp, is an actor, singer, and dancer known for her performance as Celie in the musical The Color Purple. She is the founder and vice-president of Black Theatre United, and her TV and film credits include Handel’s Messiah Rocks, The Blacklist, The Help, and The Night Of. |
Ladnier, Tommy | b. May 28, 1900, Mandeville, Louisiana, United States d. June 4, 1939, New York City, New York, United States Tommy Ladnier was a jazz trumpeter. He worked with many well-known musicians, including Lovie Austin and King Oliver's band. He accompanied blues singers Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, and Alberta Hunter. His most famous recordings came near the end of his life, playing with Sidney Bechet and Mezz Mezzrow. |
Lane, Doyle | b. March 4, 1923, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. January 15, 2002, Los Angeles, California, United States Doyle Lane was a ceramist who studied at the University of Southern California. Lane was known for creating large-scale clay paintings for many prominent sites across Southern California. |
Lane, Lois K. Alexander | b. July 11, 1916, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States d. September 29, 2007, Lanham, Maryland, United States Lois K. Alexander Lane was a fashion designer and founder of Institute of Fashion, an educational institute the Harlem that offered free courses to students interested in dressmaking, millinery and tailoring. Lane also founded the Black Fashion Museum (BFM) in New York City. |
LaRedd, Cora | b. August 4, 1908 in Jacksonville, Florida, United States d. March 21, 1968, New York, United States Cora LaRedd was a dancer and singer. She was known for her hard-hitting rhythm-tap style, often announced as the "Terpsichorean riot". She was the lead dancer for Charlie Dixon (of the Fletcher Henderson band) and worked on Broadway in Say When and Change Your Luck and the film That's the Spirit. |
Lawrence, Jacob | b. September 7, 1917, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States d. June 9, 2000, Seattle, Washington, United Stated Jacob Lawrence was a painter known for his portrayals of contemporary African American life and historical subjects. He was the son of parents who had migrated from the rural South. |
Le Ravin, Mary | b. 1905, Natchez, Mississippi, United States d. 1992, Place unknown Mary Le Ravin was a visual artist and ordained minister who was known for creating what she describes African bone art”. For Le Ravin, bones represented the sacred cycle of life, death, and rebirth. |
Lee-Smith, Hughie | b. September 20, 1915, Eustis, Florida, United States d. February 23, 1999, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States Hughie Lee-Smith was a trained painter and teacher. In his work, Lee-Smith often explored these of human isolation, connections against vast landscapes and urban settings. |
Lee, Annie | b. March 3, 1935, Gadsden, Alabama, United States d. November 14, 2014, Clark County, Nevada, United States Annie Frances Lee was a painter and founder of the Annie Lee and Friends Gallery where she displayed her works as well as the works of other artists. Several of her paintings appeared on the sets of popular television shows such as A Different World. |
Lee, Mable | b. August 2, 1921, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. February 7, 2019, Manhattan, New York, United States Mable Lee was a jazz tap dancer and singer. She was also known as "Queen of the Soundies" due to her numerous film performances. She performed with the first all-Black USO troupe during World War II, and after the war, she had a decades-long career on Broadway. |
Lee, Spike | b. March 20, 1957, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Spike Lee, born Shelton Jackson Lee, is a movie director, producer, and screenwriter who has acted in more than ten of his films. He directed and starred in the films She’s Gotta Have It, School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Jungle Fever, Crooklyn, Girl 6, and Red Hook Summer. |
LeGon, Jeni | b. August 14, 1916, Chicago, Illinois, United States d. December 7, 2012, Vancouver, British Columbia Jeni LeGon, born Jennie Ligon, was a dancer and dance instructor. She was one of the first African American women to develop a successful solo tap career and to dance in trousers. She worked with the Whitman Sisters and Count Basie and was the only black woman to dance on screen with Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson. |
Lester, Ketty | b. August 16, 1934, Hope, Arkansas, United States Ketty Lester is an actor and singer who appeared in the films Blacula and Louis Armstrong: Chicago Style and the TV series Little House on the Prairie and In the Heat of the Night. She is known for the songs “Love Letters,” “You Do Something to Me,” and “I’m a Fool to Want You.” |
Levy, Tondelayo | b. July 29, 1912 in New York City, United States d. January 9, 1998, New York City, New York, United States Tondelayo Levy was a dancer, singer and musician, and co-owner of a nightclub called Tondelayo's, where she performed every night. She started as a Cotton Club Girl performing with many jazz greats. |
Lewis, Earl | b. November 15, 1955, Norfolk, Virginia, United States Earl Lewis is a writer and scholar. He is the founding director of the Center for Social Solutions and a distinguished professor of history, Afro-American and African studies, and public policy at Michigan University. He wrote In Their Own Interests: Race, Class, and Power in Twentieth-Century Norfolk. |
Lewis, Samella | b. February 27, 1923, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. May 27, 2022, Torrance, California, United States Samella Lewis was an artist, curator and art historian who was known for dedication to embedding African-American Art in tor the American Art canon. Lewis established three galleries in Los Angeles, and in 1976 founded the city's Museum of African American Art. |
Liston, Virginia | b. Date unknown, Louisiana, United States d. 1932, St. Louis, Missouri, United States Virginia Liston, née Crawford, was a blues, jazz singer and vaudeville performer. Born in Louisianna, in the 1920s she moved to Washington D.C. Liston released thirty-six recordings including a performance with Clarence Williams, and his Blue Five on You've Got the Right Key, but the Wrong Keyhole. |
Long Weaver, Sandra | b. June 25, 1952, Annapolis, Maryland Sandra Long Weaver is a journalist and media executive. She is president and CEO of the Dawson Media Group, editorial director for the Tennessee Tribune, and a former managing editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. She is also a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists. |
Lowe, Ann | b. 1898, Clayton, Alabama, United States d. February 25, 1981, Queens, New York, United States Ann Lowe was a fashion designer who was known for designing the wedding dress worn by Jacqueline Bouvier when she married president John F. Kennedy. Lowe was considered first African-American to become a noted fashion designer. |
Lowe, James B. | b. 1879, Macon, Georgia, United States d. May 19, 1963, Los Angeles, California, United States James B. Lowe was an actor who featured in Universal Studio’s 1927 silent version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. He played Uncle Tom, a character that became a derogatory epithet for a Black person considered to be excessively obedient or servile to white people. |
Lyles, Aubrey | b. January 8, 1884, Jackson, Tennessee, United States d. July 28, 1932, New York City, United States Aubrey Lee Lyles was a vaudeville performer, playwright, songwriter, and lyricist. He appeared in the famous comedy duo with Flournoy E. Miller as Miller and Lyles from 1905 until shortly before his death. In 1929 they appeared in the film, They Know Their Groceries. |
Lyons, Allen Carnell | b. August 6, 1917, Kansas City, Missouri, United States d. September 12, 1992, Berlin, Germany Allen Carnell Lyons was a tap dancer. He danced with the Three Rags of Rhythm and Three Businessmen of Rhythm in the 1930s and 40s. In the 1950s, he performed with Milton Berle, Kate Smith and Jackie Gleason. He moved to Berlin, Germany, in the 1970s to teach tap and initiate a European revival. |
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Mack, Cecil | b. November 6, 1873, Portsmouth, Virginia, United States d. August 1, 1944, New York City, New York, United States Cecil Mack was a composer, lyricist and music publisher. In 1923 he wrote the lyrics to The Charleston, a song to accompany the Charleston dance with music composed by James P. Johnson. In 1925, he co-wrote the book for the musical Mooching Along. |
Mackey, Nathaniel | b. 1947, Miami, Florida, United States Nathaniel Mackey is a writer and educator. He is the author of the prose series From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate. His poetry collections include Whatsaid Serif and Splay Anthem. He is a professor of creative writing at Duke University. |
Madden, Owney | b. 1891, Leeds, United Kingdom d. 1965, Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States Owen Vincent Madden was a British-born gangster who owned Manhatten's Cotton Club. The Cotton Club was a nightclub that ran between 1923 and 1940, during which the venue presented some of the most popular black musicians and entertainers, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. |
Maddox, Lester | b. September 30, 1915, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. June 25, 2003, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Lester Maddox was a politician, restaurant owner and segregationist. He was the 75th governor of Georgia (1967 to 1971). He refused to serve black customers in his restaurant, the Pickrick, violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He later served as Georgia's lieutenant governor under Jimmy Carter. |
Madgett, Naomi Long | b. July 5, 1923, Norfolk, Virginia, United States d. November 4, 2020, West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, United States Naomi Long Madgett was a Detroit poet laureate and professor emeritus of English at Eastern Michigan University. Her poetry collections include Octavia and You Are My Joy and Pain. She was the founder and publisher-editor of Lotus Press, dedicated to publishing African-American poetry. |
Major, Clarence | b. December 31, 1936, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Clarence Major is a poet, novelist, and painter. His volumes of poetry include Swallow the Lake and Configurations. He is a professor emeritus of twentieth-century American literature at UC Davis and the author of Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang and also the novel One Flesh. |
Manning, Frankie | b. May 26, 1914, Florida, United States d. April 27, 2009, Manhattan, New York, United States Frank Manning was a dancer and choreographer. He is considered one of the founders of Lindy Hop. He danced with Norma Miller and created the first ensemble routines for Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, although never credited as choreographer. His film credits include A Day at the Races and Helzapoppin'. |
Markham, "Pigmeat" Dewey | b. April 18, 1904, Durham, North Carolina, United States d. December 13, 1981, The Bronx, New York, United States "Pigmeat" Markham was a dancer, comedian, actor, singer and entertainer. He was a member of Bessie Smith's Traveling Revue in the 1920s. He later claimed to have originated the Truckin' dance in the 1930s and performed at the Apollo Theater and The Ed Sullivan Show. |
Marriott, John | b. 1893, Boley, Oklahoma, United States d. 1977, New York, New York, United States John Marriott was an actor best known for his performance in the play The Iceman Cometh. He also appeared on stage in The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia, The Green Pastures, and Mulatto. His film and TV credits include Dog Day Afternoon and Love of Life. |
Martin, Jesse L. | b. January 18, 1969, Rocky Mount, Virginia, United States Jesse L. Martin is an actor and singer. His notable roles include Tom Collins in the Broadway musical Rent, NYPD detective Ed Green in the TV series Law & Order, and captain Joe West in The Flash on The CW. He has also appeared in stage productions of Timon of Athens and The Merchant of Venice. |
Martin, Sallie | b. 1895, Pittfield, Georgia, United States d. June 18, Chicago, Illinois, United States Sallie Martin was an American gospel singer known by many as the "Mother of Gospel". She moved to Chicago in 1920, where she sang in Holiness churches. Martin formed the Sallie Martin Singers, one of the first all-female gospel groups. |
Martin, Sara | b. June 18, 1884 , Louisville, Kentucky, United States d. May 24, 1955, Louisville, Kentucky, United States Sara Martin was a blues singer, also using the names Margaret Johnson and Sally Roberts. In the 1920s, she had a prolific recording career that ook her to New York, Detroit, and Pittsburgh. She made over 100 records and was the first to record T'aint Nobody's Bus'ness if I Do with Fats Waller on piano in 1922. |
Mastin, Will | b. July 20, 1878, Madison, Alabama, United States d. March 14, 1979, Los Angeles, California, United States Will Mastin, also credited as Will Maston, was a dancer and singer. He was the leader of the Will Mastin Trio, which included Sammy Davis Sr. and his son Sammy Davis Jr. They appeared in the 1947 film Sweet and Low and the 1956 Broadway musical Mr Wonderful. |
May, Butler | b. August 18, 1894, Montgomery, Alabama, United States d. November 1917, in Jacksonville, Florida, United States Butler May was a vaudeville performer, pianist and comedian. He was known as "String Beans" and for his contortive vernacular dancing. He performed with his wife, Sweetie Matthews. As a husband and wife team, they inspired Butterbeans and Susie. |
Mayfield, Julian | b. June 6, 1928, Greer, South Carolina, United States d. October 20, 1984, Takoma Park, Maryland, United States Julian Mayfield was an actor, director, writer, and civil rights activist. He was the author of the autobiography Which Way Does the Blood River Run, lecturer in the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University, and featured in the films Uptight, Virgin Island, and Band Leader. |
Maynor, Dorothy | b. 1910, Norfolk, Virginia, United States d. February 19, 1996, West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States Dorothy Maynor was a soprano recitalist and founder of the Harlem School of the Arts. She was the first African-American to sing at a presidential inauguration, performing for President Harry S. Truman in 1949 and President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. |
Mazloomi, Carolyn L. | b. August 22, 1948, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States Dr. Carolyn L. Mazloomi is a curator, author, lecturer, Artist and founder of The Women of Color Quilters Network. Dr. Mazloomi is the 2016 inductee to the Quilters Hall of Fame Museum. |
McBride, William | b. 1912, Algiers, Louisiana, United States d. August 11, 2000, Chicago, Illinois, United States William McBride was a photographer, cultural activist and educator who was part of the a collective young black artists who formed the Art Crafts Guild McBride helped to form the South Side Community Art Center and taught art classes at Malcolm X College, Kennedy-King College and Olive-Harvey College. |
McClendon, Rose | b. 1884, Greenville, South Carolina, United States d. July 12, 1936, New York, New York, United States Rose McClendon was an actor and director who co-founded the Negro People’s Theatre in Harlem. She appeared in the opera Deep River as well as numerous plays, including Roseanne, Justice, In Abraham’s Bosom, Porgy and Bess, Mulatto, and Black Souls. She was also a board member of the Theatre Union. |
McCoy, Viola | b. Date unknown, Place unknown, United States d. Date unknown, New York, City, New York, United States Viola McCoy was a contralto blues singer. Little in known about her early life but she is thought to have been born around 1900 in Memphis, Tenesee. By 1916 she was performing in Stark's Minstrel company in New York and later toured the Theater Owners Bookers Association vaudeville circuit. She frequently recorded with Porter Grainger and later, musicians Fletcher Henderson, Louis Hooper, and Bob Fuller. |
McCullough, Barbara | b. 1945, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Barbara McCullough is a film director whose work focused on depicting narratives of African Diaspora. Her work whose work is screened nationally and internationally at galleries and museums. McCullough is also Chair and Professor of visual effects at the Savannah College of Art and Design. |
McElroy, Colleen J. | b. 1935, St. Louis, Missouri, United States Colleen J. McElroy is an author, editor and memoirist. She has written short stories, television scripts, plays and several collections of poetry, including Sleeping with the Moon (2007). McElroy has received a number of literary awards. |
McGee, Charles | b. December 15, 1924, Clemson, South Carolina, United States d. February 4, 2021, Detroit, Michigan, United States Charles McGee was a painter, sculptor educator founder of Gallery 7, which was a cooperative artspace in the city and the Charles McGee School of Art. In 1979, McGee also co-founded the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, a community-based, non-profit art space. |
McGhee, Allie | b. 1941, Charleston, West Virginia , United States Allie McGhee is an abstract artist who is known for his large expressive paintings. His paintings can be found in prestigious national museum collections such as the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. |
McGirt, James Ephraim | b. 1874, Robeson County, North Carolina, United States d. 1930, Greensboro, North Carolina, United States James Ephraim McGirt was a writer, publisher, and realtor. He was the founder of McGirt’sMagazine, a publication dedicated to “urging race advancement along with writings by prominent African Americans.” His poetry collections include Avenging the Maine, Some Simple Songs, and For Your Sweet Sake. |
McIntosh, Hattie | b. c. 1860, place unknown, United States d. 1919, place unknown, United States Hattie McIntosh was a vaudeville performer. She performed in shows Mr and Mrs McIntosh in the King of Bavaria and A Hot Old Time in Dixie with her husband, fellow performer Tom McIntosh, a comedian. |
McKinney, Nina Mae | b. June 12, 1912, Lancaster, South Carolina, United Stated d. May 3, 1967, New York, New York, United States Nina Mae McKinney was an actor, singer, and dancer best known for her performance in the film musical Hallelujah. Her other movie credits include Pinky, Danger Street,and The Devil’s Daughter. She is known for the songs “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” “Lazybones,” and “Shuffle Off to Buffalo.” |
McKissack, Patricia | b. August 9, 1944, Smyrna, Tennessee, United States d. April 7, 2017, Bridgeton, Missouri, United States Patricia McKissack was an author, editor, and educator. She was children’s book editor of Concordia Publishing House, author of The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural, coauthor of Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman? and a lecturer in children’s writing at Missouri-St. Louis University. |
McPherson, James Alan | b. September 16, 1943, Savannah Georgia, United States d. July 27, 2016, Iowa City, Iowa, United States James Alan McPherson was a writer and educator. He wrote the short-story collections Elbow Room and Hue and Cry, the essay collection A Region Not Home: Reflections from Exile, and a memoir titled Crabcakes. He was professor emeritus of the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. |
McQueen, Armelia | b. January 6, 1952, Southern Pines, North Carolina, United States d. October 3, 2020, Los Angeles, California, United States Armelia McQueen was an actor best known for her performances in Broadway’s Ain’t Misbehavin’ and the movie Ghost. She appeared in stage productions of South Pacific, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Hair, and her TV credits include The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Martin, and Living Single. |
Miller, Flournoy | b. April 14, 1885, Columbia, Tennessee, United States d. June 6, 1971, Hollywood, California, United States Flournoy Miller was an entertainer, producer and playwright. Between 1905 and 1932, he formed the comic duo, Miller and Lyles with Aubrey Lyles. He wrote much-acclaimed vaudeville and Broadway shows, including Shuffle Along (1921),and worked on several all-black movies between the 1930s and 1950s. |
Miller, Punch | b. June 10, 1894, Raceland, Louisiana, United States d. December 2, 1971, New Orleans, Louisiana Punch Miller, born Ernest Miller, was a traditional jazz trumpeter. He moved to Chicago in 1926 where he worked with various bands including those of Jelly Roll Morton and Tiny Parham, and appeared on several recordings. |
Miller, Thomas | b. December 24, 1920, Bristol, Virginia, United States d. July 19, 2012, Chicago, Illinois, United States Thomas Miller was a graphic designer and visual artist, whose best known for his collection of mosaics of the founders of DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, Illinois. |
Millinder, Lucky | b. August 8, 1910, Anniston, Alabama, United States d. September 28, 1966, Harlem, New York, United States Lucky Millinder, born Lucius Venable Millinder, was a swing and rhythm-and-blues bandleader. He could not read or write music and did not play an instrument, and rarely sang. His showmanship and musical taste made his bands successful. He was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1986. |
Mills, Florence | b. January 25, 1896, Washington, D.C., United States d. November 1, 1927, New York City, United States Florence Mills was a dancer, singer and comedian. She was well known for performing in the shows, Shuffle Along, Plantation Revue and Blackbirds during the Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance. |
Minnie, Memphis | b. June 3, 1897, in Algiers, Louisiana, United States d. August 6, 1973, Memphis, Tennessee, United States Memphis Minnie, born Lizzie Douglas, was an influential blues guitarist, songwriter and vocalist. Born in Louisiana, she grew up in Memphis and later made Chicago her home. Over three decades, she recorded many songs and continued to record into the early 1950s. |
Minns, Al | b. January 1 1920, Newport News, Virginia, United States d. April 24 1985, New York, United States Al Minns was a Lindy Hop and jazz dancer. He danced in Whitey's Lindy Hoppers and helped to promote and pioneer the dances at The Savoy Ballroom. He can be seen in the films Cabin In The Sky and Hellzapoppin. In the 1940s, he and Leon James had a comedy act called "Moke and Poke", which they took to film. |
Mitchell, Arthur | b. March 27, 1934, Harlem, New York City, United States d. September 19, 2018, Manhattan, New York City, United States Arthur Mitchell was a ballet dancer, choreographer, founder, and director of ballet companies. In 1955, he was the first African-American dancer to join the New York City Ballet and was promoted to principal in 1956. He founded the renowned Dance Theatre of Harlem. |
Mitchell, Corinne | b. March 10, 1914, Mecklenburg County, Virginia, United States d. 21 Apr 1993, Washington, District of Columbia, United States Corinne Mitchell was a painter and educator who was committed to supporting young African American artists. Mitchell founded two art sororities, Theta Sigma Upsilon (1979) and Eta Phi Sigma (1981),to advocate for its members exhibition opportunities. |
Monk, Thelonious | b. October 10, 1917, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States d. February 17, 1982, Englewood, New Jersey, United States Thelonious Monk was a pianist and composer. He was well-known for his unique improvisational style and is considered one of the first creators of modern jazz. He made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including Round Midnight and Blue Monk. |
Monroe, Mary | b. Date and year unknown, Toxey, Alabama, United States Mary Monroe is a fiction writer. An excerpt from her first novel The Upper Room, is featured in Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction. She is best known for her novel God Don’t Like Ugly, which is part of a series of six books. |
Monroe, Sylvester | b. August 5, 1951, Leland, Mississippi, United States Sylvester Monroe is a freelance journalist and author, who cowrote the book Brothers: Black and Poor—A True Story of Courage and Survival. He was previously the Boston bureau chief of Newsweek, senior editor of Ebony magazine, and vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. |
Moody, Anne | b. September 15, 1940, Wilkinson, Mississippi, United States d. February 5, 2015, Place unknown Anne Moody was a civil rights activist and writer. She moved to New York, where she became a civil rights project coordinator at Cornell University and also wrote her autobiography Coming of Age in Mississippi, detailing her involvement with the anti-racist movement in the South. |
Moore, Charles | b. May 22, 1927, Cleveland, Ohio, United States d. January 23, 1986, Brooklyn, New York, United States Charles Moore was a dancer, choreographer, teacher and founder of The Charles Moore Dance Theatre in New York. He was a member of Katherine Dunham's dance company from 1952 to 1960 and performed in many Broadway productions, including Carmen Jones and House of Flowers revivals. |
Moore, Juanita | b. October 19, 1914, Greenwood, Mississippi, United States d. January 1, 2014, Los Angeles, California, United States Juanita Moore was an actor and dancer best known for her performance as single mother Annie Johnson in the film Imitation of Life. She danced in Harlem’s Cotton Club and appeared in the films Pinky and Walk on the Wild Side as well as stage productions of The Amen Corner and A Raisin in the Sun. |
Moore, Rudy Ray | b. March 17, 1927, Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States d. October 19, 2008, Akron, Ohio, United States Rudy Ray Moore was a comedian, singer, actor, and producer best known for his comedic persona Dolemite. His comedy albums include Eat Out More Often and, This Pussy Belongs to Me. He produced and starred in his first film, Dolemite. He subsequently starred in The Human Tornado and Disco Godfather. |
Morris, Garrett | b. February 1, 1937, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Garrett Morris is an actor, comedian, and singer. He is part of the original cast of the comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live. His TV appearances include The Jamie Foxx Show, the sitcom 2 Broke Girls, and Martin, and he has featured in films like Ant-man and Coneheads. |
Morrison, Ernest Frederick | b. December 20, 1912, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. July 24, 1989, Lynwood, California, United States Ernest Frederick Morrison, also known as Sunshine Sammy, was a child movie star best known for his performance in the Our Gang/Little Rascals comedy film series. He made his film debut in The Soul of a Child aged three. He also appeared in the TV series Good Times and TheJeffersons. |
Morrison, Toni | b. February 18, 1931, Lorain, Ohio, United States d. August 5, 2019, Washington, D.C., Washington, United States Toni Morrison, born Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, was a critically acclaimed author. Her novel, Song of Solomon, brought her natioanl attention. Morrison went on to receive a number of awards. In 1993, she became the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. |
Morton, Jelly Roll | b. September 20, 1890, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. July 10, 1941, Los Angeles, California, United States Jelly Roll Morton, born Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, was a pianist, bandleader, and composer. He is best known for influencing the formation of modern-day jazz during the 1920s. His credits include Black Bottom Stomp, King Porter Stomp, Shoe Shiner’s Drag, and Dead Man Blues. |
Mosley, John W. | b. 1907, Lumberton, North Carolina, United States d. 1969, Place unknown John W. Mosley was a photographer and photojournalist who chronicled the vitality of the black community and life in the segregated city of20th-century Philadelphia and Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. His subjects included Marian Anderson, Martin Luther King, Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes. |
Motley, Archibald | b. October 7, 1891, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. January 16, 1981, Chicago, Illinois, United States Archibald Motley Jr. was a modernist who's artwork primarily focused on life and culture of African Americans in Chicago. He is considered as one of the key contributors to the Harlem Renaissance. Many pieces of his work depicted colourful high energy Jazz parties. |
Murray, Albert | b. May 12, 1916, Nokomis, Alabama, United States d. August 18, 2013, New York, New York, United States Albert Murray was an essayist, jazz critic, and novelist who promoted a multi-ethnic, pluralist American society. He was the author of the essay collection The Omni-Americans, his memoir South to a Very Old Place, and Stomping the Blues, a work of music criticism. |
Murray, Pauli | b. November 20, 1910, Baltimore, Maryland, United States d. July 1, 1985, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States Pauli Murray was a civil rights activist, feminist, priest, poet, and writer. She was cofounder of the National Organization for Women, a lecturer in African-American Studies and Women’s Studies at Brandeis University, and the author of the autobiography Song in a Weary Throat: An American Pilgrimage. |
Murry, Jesse | b. April 4, 1948, Cumberland, North Carolina, United States d. January 13, 1993, Saginaw, Michigan, United States Jesse Murry was a painter and poet who was known for his abstract seascape paintings. He studied at Sarah Lawrence College and at the age of thirty-six enrolled in the Yale School of Art. |
Myers, Lou | b. September 26, 1935, Cabin Creek, West Virginia, United States d. February 19, 2013, Charleston, West Virginia, United States Lou Myers was an actor best known for his role as Mr. Vernon Gaines in TV sitcom A Different World. He appeared in stage productions of The First Breeze of Summer, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Fences. His movie credits include Cobb, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and Lackawanna Blues. |
Myers, Walter Dean | b. August 12, 1937, Martinsburg, West Virginia, United States d. July 1, 2014, New York, New York, United States Walter Dean Myers was an author of over seventy children’s and young adult books best known for his novel Monster. He was the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and author of the memoir Bad Boy and biography Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary. |
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Nathaniel-Walker, Inez | b. 1911, Sumter, South Carolina, United States d. 1990, Willard, New York, United States Inez Nathaniel-Walker was an artist whose work is represented by numerous galleries. Her drawings are in the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland, the L'Arcanie, Neuilly-sur-Marne, near Paris as well as in a number of museums in the United States such as the Museum of American Folk Art and the Smithsonian. |
Neal, Larry | b. September 5, 1937, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. January 6, 1981, Hamilton, New York, United States Larry Neal was a critic, playwright, and leading member of the Black Arts Movement. He is the author of the poetry collection Hoodoo Hollerin Bebop Ghosts, coeditor of Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing, and creator of the play The Glorious Monster in the Bell of the Horn. |
Neals, Otto | b. December 11, 1931, Lake City, South Carolina, United States Otto Neals is a painter, sculptor and co-founder the historic Weusi Artist Collective and Nyumba Ya Sanaa Gallery in Harlem. In 1958, he assisted in establishing the Fulton Art Fair, which is the oldest Black visual arts event in Brooklyn. |
Nicholas, Fayard | b. October 20, 1914, Mobile, Alabama, United States d. January 24, 2006, Los Angeles, California, United States Fayard Nicholas was a choreographer, dancer and actor. He performed in the Nicholas Brothers tap dance duo with his brother, Harold. They were well-known for their flash dance style of tap, featured at Cotton Club, and starred in Stormy Weather (1943) and Down Argentine Way (1940). |
Nicholas, Harold | b. 1921, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States d. 2000, New York, United States Harold Nicholas was a choreographer, dancer and actor. He performed in the Nicholas Brothers tap dance duo with his brother, Fayard. They were well-known for their flash dance tap style, featured at Cotton Club, and starred in Stormy Weather (1943) and Down Argentine Way (1940). |
Norman, Maidie | b. October 6, 1912, Villa Rica, Georgia, United States d. May 2, 1998, San Jose, California, United States Maidie Norman was an actor who defied racist stereotypes. In the film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, she refused to speak in demeaning “yessum” dialect and changed her lines. She told directors “You know, this is not the way we [African-Americans] talk these days. This is old slavery-time talk”. |
Norment, Lynn | b. February 14, 1952, Bolivar, Tennessee, United States Lynn Norment is a journalist most recognized for her thirty years spent with Ebony Magazine, writing and editing columns that include "Sisterspeak", "Ebony Advisor" and "Money Talks". She is also a lifetime member and a former vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. |
Norton, Harold | b. August 25, 1912, New York City, United States d. July 1985, New York, United States Harold Norton was a ballroom dancer. He performed in the duo Norton and Margot with Marot Webb. They made their debut in 1933 to great success and toured extensively on the Black Vaudeville circuits and in London, Paris and Germany. |
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O’Connor, Flannery | b. March 25, 1925, Savannah, Georgia, United States d. August 3, 1964, Milledgeville, Georgia, United States Flannery O’Connor was a fiction writer and ardent racist. After her death, some of her letters were published as The Habit of Being. In one, she wrote “About the Negroes, the kind I don’t like is the philosophizing prophesying pontificating kind, the James Baldwin kind.” |
O’Neal, Frederick | b. August 27, 1905, Brooksville, Mississippi, United States d. August 25, 1992, New York, New York, United States Frederick O’Neal was a stage, film, and TV actor and union organizer. He was president of the Actors’ Equity Association and the Negro Actors Guild, co-founder of American Negro Theater, and vice president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. |
O'Neal, Mary Lovelace | b. February 10, 1942, Jackson, Mississippi, United States Mary Lovelace O'Neal was a mixed-media artist, arts educator and civil rights activist. She has represented the United States at a number of Biennales & International Art Festivals including Biennale Internazionale dell'Arte. |
Olden, Marc | b. December 25, 1933, Baltimore, Maryland, United States d. September 5, 2003, New York, New York, United States Marc Olden was a crime thriller writer. His novels include Poe Must Die, Black Samurai, The Informant, and The Ghost. He has written several non-fiction books, including Angela Davis: An Objective Assessment and Cocaine, an exposé on New York’s drug world. |
Oliver, Diane | b. July 28, 1943, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States d. 1966, Iowa City, Iowa, United States Diane Oliver was a writer and feminist. She was a member of the Iowa University Writers’ Workshop. Her short shorties Key to the City and Neighbors, published in the Sewanee Review, center around women struggling against racism and sexism after migrating from the southern states to Chicago. |
Oliver, King | b. Date and year unknown, Aben, Louisiana, United States d. 1938, Savannah, Georgia, United States King Oliver, born Joseph Nathan Oliver, was a jazz cornet player and bandleader. He moved from New Orleans to Chicago in 1918 and later New York. Oliver was the leader of King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band, noted for his playing style and pioneering use of mutes. |
Ory, Kid | b. December 25, 1886, LaPlace, Louisiana, United States d. January 23, 1973, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States Kid Ory, born Edouard Ory, was a trombonist, jazz composer, and bandleader. in 1919 he moved to California, and five years later to Chicago. He was one of the early users of the glissando technique. He had a very active career working with Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Oliver, Johnny Dodds, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Benny Goodman and many others. |
Otis Trotter | b. Date and year unknown, Richlands, Virginia, United States Otis Trotter is a disabilities care worker and author living in Ohio, United States. He wrote Keeping Heart: A Memoir of Family Struggle, Race, and Medicine. A personal account of his medical struggles, African American experience, and his family’s journey north during the second Great Migration. |
Outterbridge, John | b. March 12, 1933, Greenville, North Carolina, United States d. November 12, 2020, Los Angeles, California, United States John Outterbridge was an assemblage artist known for transforming the useless (rags, salvaged junk, metal, detritus from the Watts riots) into the useful. From 1969 to 1972, Outterbridge was artistic director of the Communicative Arts Academy and between 1975 to 1992, he served as director of the Watts Towers Arts Center in LA. |
Overstreet, Joe | b. June 20, 1933, Conehatta, Mississippi, United States d. June 4, 2019 , New York, New York, United States Joe Overstreet was a painter and art director of the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School in Harlem. Overstreet also worked as an animator for Walt Disney Studios in Los Angeles. |
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Page, Hot Lips | b. January 27, 1908, Dallas, Texas, United States d. November 5, 1954, New York City, New York, United States Hot Lips Page, born Oran Thaddeus Page, was a jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader. He made over 200 recordings and was a member of Walter Page's Blue Devils, Artie Shaw's Orchestra and Count Basie's Orchestra. He worked with Charlie Parker, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Ida Cox. |
Pajaud, William | b. August 3, 1925, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. June 16, 2015, Los Angeles, United States William Pajaud was a painter and former president of the National Watercolor Society. Pajaud father was a Jazz Musician and Pajaud was known for producing art work inspired by traditional New Orleans Jazz Funerals and powerful African American women. |
Parish, Norman | b. August 26, 1937, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. July 8, 2013, Germantown, Maryland, United States Norman Parish was an artist, art dealer and founder of the Parish Gallery. Opened in 1991, Parish Gallery became one of the country’s best-known black-owned art galleries which promoted works by Black artists. |
Parker, Charlie | b. August 29, 1920, Kansas City, Kansas, United States d. March 12, 1955, New York City, New York, United States Charlie Parker, aslo known "Yardbird" or "Bird", was a jazz musician, composer and saxophonist who was a hugely influential figure in founding a form of jazz known as bebop. |
Parks, Suzan-Lori | b. May 10, 1963, Fort Knox, Kentucky, United States Suzan-Lori Parks is a playwright and screenwriter. She is best known for her plays Topdog/Underdog and 365 Days/365 Plays. She wrote the screenplays for Spike Lee’s Girl 6 and is a professor of dramatic writing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. |
Pharr, Robert Deane | b. 1916, Richmond, Virginia, United States d. 1992, Syracuse, New York, United States Robert Deane Pharr was a fiction writer. He is best known for The Book of Numbers, a novel that tells the story of a Black man who rises from waiter to millionaire by fixing the lottery. His other novels include The Welfare Bitch, The Soul Murder Case, and Giveadamn Brown. |
Phillips, Delores | b. 1950, Bartow County, Georgia, United States d. 2014, Place unknown Delores Phillips was a novelist and psychiatric nurse. She was the author of The Darkest Child, a novel about a young girl’s fight to finish her education. Her writing appeared in Jean’s Journal, Black Times, and Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. |
Pickett, Wilson | b. March 18, 1941, Prattville, Alabama, United States d. January 19, 2006, Reston, Virginia, United States Wilson Pickett was a singer and songwriter. He was a significant figure in the development of American soul music. Born in Alabama, he migrated to Detroit in the 1950s where his father worked in a car factory. Pickett recorded over 50 songs. Among his best-known hits are Land of 1,000 Dances, Mustang Sally, and Don't Knock My Love. |
Pierce, Wendell | b. December 8, 1963, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Wendell Pierce is an actor known for his role as detective Bunk Moreland in the Baltimore HBO crime series The Wire. He was also featured on TV in Treme, Jack Ryan, and The Watch. His film credits include Burning Cane, Selma, Clemency, Malcolm X, and the rhythm and blues musician biopic Ray. |
Pitts, Juanita | b. Date unknown, United States d. Date Unknown, United States Juanita Pitts was a tap dancer. She was known to wear the attire for male tap dancers at the time, a tuxedo and Oxford shoes. She danced with her husband in "Pitts and Pitts" at Howard Theatre in the 1950s and the Apollo in New York City. |
Plumpp, Sterling | b. January 30, 1940, Clinton, Mississippi, United States Sterling Plumpp is a poet. His poetry collections include Velvet BeBop Kente Cloth and Clinton. He is a professor emeritus at Illinois University in the departments of African American studies and English and editor for Third World Press and the Institute for Positive Education. |
Pogue, Stephanie | b. 27 Sep 1944, Shelby, North Carolina, United States d. November 12, 2002, , United States Stephanie Pogue was a professor, printmaker, artist, and curator. She served as both a Professor and Gallery Director at Fisk University, Nashville, from 1968 to 1981, and has been a Professor of Art at the University of Maryland, from 1981 to the present. |
Poitier, Sidney | b. February 20, 1927, Miami, Florida, United States d. January 6, 2022, Los Angeles, California, United States Sidney Poitier was an actor known for his performances in the films No Way Out, Lilies of the Field, To Sir With Love, In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and Cry, the Beloved Country. He once said, “I am an artist, man, American, contemporary.” |
Polk, P. H. | b. November 25, 1898, Bessemer, Alabama, United States d. December 29, 1985, Tallassee, Alabama, United States Prentice Hall Polk was a photographer who was best-known for his photos of elderly working people in rural Alabama. He was Head of the Photo Department Faculty at Tuskegee Institute and during the 1960s. Polk documented the Civil Rights Movement and the Tuskegee Institute’s student protests. |
Pollard, Mildred "Boggie" | b. 1919, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. Date and place unknown, United States Mildred Pollard was a dancer known as "Boogie". In 1937, she joined Whitey's Lindy Hoppers with Joe Daniels, Al Minns, and Joyce James. Following Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, she became a solo blues dancer named Sandra Gibson. |
Porter Wesley, Dorothy | b. May 25, 1905, Warrenton, Virginia, United States d. December 17, 1995, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States Dorothy Porter Wesley was a librarian and writer. She was curator of the Moorland Foundation at Howard University, helping to create an extensive library on the African diaspora. She wrote Early Negro Writing, 1760-1837, Afro-Braziliana: A Working Bibliography, and North American Negro Poets. |
Porter, Maggie | b. 1853, Lebanon, Tennessee, United States d. 1942, Detroit, Michigan, United States Maggie Porter, born Maggie Porter Cole, was a soprano singer and schoolteacher. She was an original member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers for all three tours of the U.S. and Europe. She established herself as a musician in her own right and organized her troupe of Fisk Jubilee Singers in the 1880s. |
Poston, Ted | b. July 4, 1906, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, United States d. January 11, 1974, Brooklyn, New York, United States Ted Poston was a journalist. He was a staff writer for the New York Post and a contributor to the Pittsburgh Courier and the New York Amsterdam News. He is best known for his reporting on the 1949 Groveland Four case in Florida, where four Black men were falsely accused of raping a white woman. |
Powell, John | b. September 6, 1882, Richmond, Virginia, United States d. August 15, 1963, Richmond, Virginia, United States John Powell was a pianist and composer. He was a firm believer in segregation and white supremacy. He contributed to the drafting and passage of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which institutionalized the one-drop rule by classifying as black (colored) anyone with African ancestry. |
Price, Florence | b. April 9, 1887, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States d. June 3, 1953, Chicago, Illinois, United States Florence Price was a composer, pianist, and organist. In 1933 she became the first African-American woman to have a symphony performed by a major US orchestra, her Symphony No. 1 in E Minor. She composed over 300 works, which include Three Little Negro Dances and Songs to the Dark Virgin. |
Prince | b. June 7, 1958, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States d. April 21, 2016, Minnesota, United States Prince Rogers Nelson, known as Prince, was a singer, songwriter, and musician considered one of the most talented of his generation. All for of his granparents were from Louisiana, and his father John L. Nelson, known as Prince Nelson, travelled from Louisana to Minnesota in 1948 to become a musican. |
Purifoy, Noah | b. August 17, 1917, Snow Hill, Alabama, United States d. March 9, 2004, Joshua Tree, California, United States Noah Purifoy was a sculptor and the founding director of the Watts Towers Art Center. Purifoy was best known for transforming found objects junked materials. Purifoy created a body of sculpture out of charred debris from the 1965 Watts rebellion which contributed to the traveling group exhibition "66 Signs of Neon" on the Watts riots. |
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Ra, Sun | b. May 22, 1914, Birmingham, Alabama, United States d. May 30, 1993, Birmingham, Alabama, United States Sun Ra, born Herman Blount, was a jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet. Born in Alabama, Sun Ra was living in Chicago by the mid-1940s. He was a pioneer of modal jazz settings and innovative in his early use of electronic keyboards and synthesizers as instrumentation and the theatricality of his performances with his Arkestra. |
Randolph, Lillian | b. Date and year unknown, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States d. September 12, 1980, Los Angeles, California, United States Lillian Randolph was an actor known for her title role in the radio show Beulah. She also appeared in the TV shows The Great Gildersleeve,mini-series Roots, and Amos ’n’ Andy, and her film credits include It’s a Wonderful Life, The Onion Field, and Magic. |
Rashad, Phylicia | b. June 19, 1948, Houston, Texas, United States Phylicia Rashad is a TV, film, and stage actor and dean of the fine arts college at Howard University. She is known for her portrayal of Lena Younger (Mama) in the play A Raisin in the Sun. Her film credits include Creed and A Fall from Grace, and she voiced the character Libba in Pixar anime Soul. |
Rasulala, Thalmus | b. November 15, 1939, Miami, Florida, United States d. October 9, 1991, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States Thalmus Rasulala was an actor best known for his roles in the films New Jack City and Above the Law, and his TV credits include What’s Happening!!, Roots, Sanford and Son, and One Life to Live. He featured in the Blaxploitation movies Blacula, Cool Breeze, and Willie Dynamite. |
Ray, Fay | b. September 11, 1919, Natchitoches, Louisiana, United States d. September 14, 2013, New York City, New York, United States Fay Ray was a dancer and singer on the vaudeville circuit. She learned from her mentor Carnel Lions. In the 1940s, she moved to New York, was a member of the Silver Belles and worked at the Café Zanzibar, Club Ebony and the 845. |
Reagon, Bernice Johnson | b. October 4, 1942, Albany, Georgia, United States Bernice Johnson Reagon is a historian, musician, curator, and professor. While a curator at the National Museum of American History, she established the Smithsonian’s Program in Black American Culture and released albums exploring the history of African American music. |
Reavis, Hattie King | b. November 18, 1890, Woodsworth, North Carolina, United States d. March 12, 1970, New York, New York, United States Hattie King Reavis was a singer and actor. She recorded music with Black Swan Records and she is known for the songs “Good Morning Brother Sunshine,” “Mammy’s Little Coal Black Rose,” and “The Awakening.” She performed on stage in productions of The Sheik of Harlem, Show Boat, and On Strivers Row. |
Rector, Eddie | b. December 25, 1890 Orange, New Jersey, United States d. 1963, New York, United States Eddie Rector was a tap dance artist and master of ceremonies. He is best known as a soft shoe expert, the inventor of the Slap Step and the protégé of John Leubrie Hill. He danced in notable revues, the Darktown Follies, Blackbirds (1928),Rhapsody in Black and Yeah Man (1932). |
Reed, Ishmael | b. February 22, 1938, Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States Ishmael Reed is a novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright. His works of fiction include The Free Lance Pallbearers, Mumbo Jumbo, and Flight to Canada. He is the founder of Konch magazine and cofounder of the literary annual YardbirdReader (renamed Y'Bird) and publishing house Reed, Cannon & Johnson. |
Reed, Leonard | b. January 7, 1907 Nowata Oklahoma, United States d. April 5, 2004 in West Covina, California Leonard Reed was a tap dancer. He co-created the famous Shim Sham Shimmy (Goofus) tap dance routine with his partner, Willie Bryant. In 1934 he and Bryant parted ways, he staged shows at the Cotton Club and later the Apollo Theater, where he also served as master of ceremonies for 20 years. |
Reid, Shirley Woodson | b. March 3, 1936, Pulaski, Tennessee, United States Shirley Woodson Reid is a painter, educator. Reid was director of the Pyramid Art Gallery from 1979 to 1980 and since 1974, Reid has been a member of the National Conference of Artists the national executive board. |
Reid, Tim | b. December 19, 1944, Norfolk, Virginia, United States Tim Reid is an actor, writer, producer and director. He has appeared on TV in The Richard Pryor Show and WKRP in Cincinnati. He made his directorial debut with the film Once Upon A Time... When We Were Colored, and he was the producer, writer, and lead actor in the TV sitcom Frank’s Place. |
Rhoden, John | b. March 13, 1916, Birmingham, Alabama, United States d. January 4, 2001, New York, New York, United States John Rhoden was a sculptor and a United States Department of State art specialist from 1955 through 1959. As a part of the International Cultural Exchange and Fair Participation Act of 1956 he travelled the world as an ambassador. |
Rice, Thomas Dartmouth | b. May 20, 1808, Manhattan, New York, United States d. September 19, 1860, Brooklyn, New York, United States Thomas Dartmouth Rice was an American playwright and performer. He was known for his signature character, Jim Crow, taken from a 19th century song which Rice popularised. |
Richards, Beah | b. July 12, 1920, Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States d. September 14, 2000, Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States Beah Richards was an actor best known for her roles as in Mrs Prentice in the film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Mrs Benton in hospital TV series ER. She also appeared in the films Hurry Sundown, In the Heat of the Night, The Great White Hope, And the Children Shall Weep, and Beloved. |
Richardson Jackson, LaTanya | b. 1949, Atlanta, Georgia, United States LaTanya Richardson Jackson is an actor and director. She has performed on stage in For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide and also Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. She directed a production of the play Two Trains Running. Her film credits include Mother and Child, Bolden, and Losing Isaiah. |
Richardson, Willis | b. November 5, 1889, Wilmington, North Carolina, United States d. November 7, 1977, Washington, D.C., Washington, United States Willis Richardson was a playwright best known for The Chip Woman’s Fortune, which was staged on Broadway. His other plays include Mortgaged and The Boot Black Lover. He was the editor of Plays and Pageants from the Life of the Negro and coeditor of Negro History in Thirteen Plays, both anthologies. |
Ricker, Willa Mae | b. April 7, 1910, United States d. 1978, United States Willa Mae Ricker was a Lindy Hop and jazz dancer. She performed with Whitey's Lindy Hoppers with fellow dancers Norma Miller, Leon James and Snookie Beasley. She was known for her physical strength and fashion sense. She was the first dancer to stand up to Herbert "Whitey" White, demanding fair pay. |
Riley, Larry | b. Date unknown, Memphis, Tennessee, United States d. June 6, 1992, Burbank, California, United States Larry Riley was an actor and singer best known for his role in the TV series Knots Landing. His film credits include A Soldier’s Story and Crackers. He co-founded Memphis’s Playhouse on the Square, and sang in several Off-Broadway revues, including Styne After Styne and Maybe I’m Doing It Wrong. |
Ringgold, Faith | b. October 8, 1930, New York, New York, United States Faith Ringgold, born Faith Willi Jones, grew up in New York City. Both her parent's families had been part of the great migration, and as a child Faith had been emeshed in the Harlem Renaissance and counted figures like Duke Ellington and Langston Hughes amoung her neighbours. |
Rivers, Haywood | b. May 8, 1922, Movern, North Carolina, United States d. December 27, 2001, Place unknown Haywood Bill Rivers was a painter and gallerist who was active in New York and Paris. Rivers was a founding member of Galerie Huit, a cooperative gallery that served as an exhibition space for Americans in Paris. |
Roberts, Davis | b. March 7, 1917, Mobile, Alabama, United States d. July 18, 1993, Chicago, Illinois, United States Davis Roberts was an actor best remembered for his role as a doctor on the TV show Sanford and Son. He was a member of the Actors’ Equity advisory board. His film credits include The Long Night, Knock on Any Door, Red Ball Express, The Great White Hope, Phone Call From a Stranger, and The Chase. |
Robinson, Bill | b. May 25, 1878, Richmond, Virginia, United States d. November 25, 1949, New York, United States Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles, was an actor and tap dancer and the highest-paid African-American entertainer in the first half of the 20th Century. He began in minstrel and Vaudeville then Broadway and films. He is famous for dancing with Shirley Temple and for starring in the musical Stormy Weather . |
Robinson, Charlie | b. November 9, 1945, Houston, Texas, United States d. July 11, 2021, Los Angeles, California, United States Charlie Robinson was an actor best known as Mac, the court clerk in the TV sitcom Night Court. His other TV appearances include The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Key and Peele, and he appeared in several films, such as The Black Gestapo, Gray Lady Down, and The House Bunny. |
Robinson, Mae Edna | b. September 4, 1915, Miami, Florida, United States d. May 2, 2002, New York, United States Edna Mae Robinson was a dancer. She performed at the Cotton Club and toured Europe with Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. In 1953 she had a Broadway debut in an all-black version of Born Yesterday. She was married to the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. |
Rock, Chris | b. February 7, 1965, Andrews, South Carolina, United States Chris Rock is a comedian and actor. His film credits include the anime series Madagascar, Beverly Hills Cop II, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka and CB4. He has appeared on TV in the comedy skit show Saturday Night Live, The Chris Rock Show, In Living Color and the crime drama Fargo. |
Roker, Roxie | b. August 28, 1929, Miami, Florida, United States d. December 2, 1995, Los Angeles, California, United States Roxie Roker was an actor best known for her role as Helen Willis in the TV series The Jeffersons. She was a player in the Negro Ensemble Company and appeared in productions of Ododo and The River Niger. She also featured in the TV series Roots and the film Amazon Women on the Moon. |
Rolle, Esther | b. November 8, 1920, Pompano Beach, Florida, United States d. November 17, 1998, Los Angeles, California, United States Esther Rolle was a TV, film, and stage actor. Her film appearances include Nothing But a Man, Don’t Play Us Cheap, Driving Miss Daisy, and Down in the Delta. She is best known for her role as Florida Evans, the sitcom Maude, and the spin-off series Good Times. |
Russell, Luis | b. August 5, 1902, Careening Cay, Panama d. December 11, 1963, New York City, United States Luis Russell was a jazz pianist, orchestra leader, composer, and arranger. Originally from Panama, Russell settled in Louisiana with his mother in 1919, before moving north to Chicago. In 1925, he worked with Doc Cook and King Oliver and later formed his own band. By 1929, his band became one of the leading jazz groups in New York City. It included Red Allen, J. C. Higginbotham, and Albert Nicholas. |
Russell, Nipsey | b. September 15, 1918, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. October 2, 2005, New York, New York, United States Nipsey Russell was a comedian and actor, who appeared on The Tonight Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, Hollywood Squares, and To Tell the Truth. He played the Tin Man in the film The Wiz. His TV acting credits include Car 54, Where Are You? and Barefoot in the Park. |
Rutherford Russell, Maude | b. c. 1897, Texas, United States d. March 8 2001, Atlantic City, United States Maude Russell Rutherford was a dancer and singer. In 1922 she introduced the Charleston on Broadway in Liza, an all-black revue. She was billed as the "Slim Princess" and worked with Fats Waller, Josephine Baker and Pearl Bailey at Harlem's Cotton Club. |
Ryan, April | b. September 5, 1967, Baltimore, Maryland, United States April Ryan is a journalist. She is the Washington bureau chief of TheGrio, a political analyst for CNN (Cable News Network),and a member of the White House Correspondents Association. She is the author of The Presidency in Black and White and At Mama's Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White. |
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Sam, Magic | b. February 14, 1937, Grenada County, Mississippi, United States d. December 1, 1969, Chicago, United States Magic Sam, born Samuel Gene Maghett, was a guitarist and blues musician. He was known for his distinctive tremolo guitar playing. In 1963, his single Feelin' Good (We're Gonna Boogie) gained national attention. He successfully toured the U.S., Britain and Germany. |
Sampler, Marion | b. June 30 1920, Anniston, Alabama, United States d. August 2, 1998, Los Angeles, California, United States Marion Sampler was a graphic designer known for designing stained-glass dome for a Los Angeles retail center. In the 1950s Sampler was one of the leading African American graphic designers in Los Angeles. |
Sanchez, Sonia | b. September 9, 1934, in Birmingham, Alabama, United States Sonia Sanchez is a poet, playwright, and children’s author. She has written numerous volumes of poetry, including We a BaddDDD People and I've Been a Woman. Her plays include The Bronx Is Next and Dirty Hearts ’72. She is the author of the children’s books A Sound Investment, and It’s a New Day. |
Seaton, Sandra | b. Date and year unknown, Columbia, Tennessee, United States Sandra Seaton is a playwright and librettist. Her first play, The Bridge Party, dramatizes a confrontation between a group of African American women and police deputies. She also wrote the librettos for The First Bluebird in the Morning and From the Diary of Sally Hemings. |
Sebree, Charles | b. 1914, Madisonville, Kentucky, United States d. 1985, Washington, District of Columbia, United States Charles Sebree was a painter and playwright who worked for the worked for the New Deal's Works Progress Administration (WPA). During his college years, Sebree designed sets and costumes for noted dancer and anthropologist, Katherine Dunham’s dance company. |
Shaik, Fatima | b. October 24, 1952, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Fatima Shaik is a writer and educator. She is author Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood, cochair of PEN America’s Children’s and Young Adult Books committee, and founder of the communication department at Saint Peter’s University. |
Shakur, Tupac | b. June 16, 1971, New York City, New York, United States d. September 13, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States Tupac Shakur was a rapper and actor considered ones of the greats of the gangster rap genre. His mother Afeni Shakur migrated north to New York in 1958 with her mother, a factory worker. |
Sills, Thomas | b. August 20, 1914, Castalia, North Carolina, United States d. September 26, 2000, New York, New York, United States Thomas Sills was an abstract painter whose work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
Simeon, Omer | b. July 21, 1902, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. September 17, 1959, New York City, New York, United States Omer Simeon was a jazz clarinetist. He had significant collaborations with Jelly Roll Morton, Earl Hines, and Wilbur DeParis, where he recorded prolifically. His songs include the Black Bottom Stomp, The Chant, and Someday Sweetheart. |
Simmons, William J. | b. 1880, Harpersville, Alabama, United States d. 1945, Atlanta, Georgia, United States William J. Simmons was imperial wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He was the author of the books The Klan Unmasked and America’s Menace: Or, The Enemy Within (an Epitome), as well as the pamphlet The Ku Klux Klan: Yesterday, Today and Forever. |
Simone, Nina | b. 1933, Tryon, North Carolina, United States d. April 21, 2003, Carry-le-Rouet, France Nina Simone, born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, was a singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights, activist. Born in North Carolina, she attened the Juliard School in New York where she studies classical piano. Her range included classical, jazz, blues and folk music. By the 1960s, she was known as the voice of the Civil Rights Movement when she wrote Mississippi Goddam, Young, Gifted and Black and Four Women. |
Simpson, Merton | b. September 20, 1928, Charleston, South Carolina, United States d. March 9, 2013, Manhattan, New York, United States Merton Daniel Simpson was a painter, gallerist and African Art dealer. Simpson worked at the Gibbes Museum where he was the only African-American in the still segregated institution. He was a member of the the African-American artists group, Spiral. |
Sims, Howard "Sandman" | b. January 24, 1917, Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States d. May 20, 2003, Bronx, New York, United States Howard "Sandman" Sims was a tap dancer and vaudevillian. He is best known for dancing performed in a wooden sandbox, which resulted in his nickname from the sand he sprinkled to alter and amplify the sound of his dance steps. "They called the board my Stradivarius," He said of his sandbox. |
Singleton, Zutty | b. May 14, 1898, Bunkie, Louisiana, United States d. July 14, 1975, New York City, United States Zutty Singleton, born Arthur James Singleton was jazz drummer. He played with jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and many others. Between 1928 and 1929, he performed on landmark recordings with Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five. |
Sissle, Noble | b. July 10, 1889, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States d. December 17, 1975, Tampa, Florida, United States Noble Sissle was a jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer, and playwright. He is best known for his work with pianist and composer Eubie Blake, with whom he cocreated Shuffle Along in 1921 and the hit song I'm Just Wild About Harry. Shuffle Along broke from the caricatured imagery of blackface minstrelsy. |
Sleet, Moneta | b. April 9, 1968, Owensboro, Kentucky, United States d. September 30, 1996, Chicago, Illinois, United States Moneta Sleet Jr. was a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer. He worked as a photographer for Ebony magazine. During his career he reported on many civil rights events including Selma to Montgomery March in 1965. Sleet was the first African-American man to win the Pulitzer, which he was awarded for his photo of Coretta Scott King. |
Slyde, Jimmy | b. October 2, 1927, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. May 16, 2008, Hanson, Massachusetts, United States Jimmy Slyde, born James Godbolt, was a tap dancer. He was known for his signature move, the slide, and often referred to as the "King of Slides." He toured with big bands in clubs throughout the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, performing regularly with Duke Ellington and Count Basie. |
Smith, Ada | b. 1894, Alderson, West Virginia, United States d. 1984, New York City, New York, United States Ada Smith, better known as Bricktop for her red hair, was a jazz singer, vaudevillian, performer, and nightclub owner. She toured with the Theater Owners' Booking Association and vaudeville circuits and worked in New York and Paris. |
Smith, Bessie | b. April 15, 1894, Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States d. September 26, 1937, Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States Bessie Smith was a contralto blues singer. Also known as "Empress of the Blues", she made 160 recordings with many great jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson. Initially touring southern states, in 1920 she made her home in Philadelphia were she was spotted by a Columbia Records representative. Her most notable songs are Down Hearted Blues, and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. |
Smith, Clara | b. 1894, South Carolina, United States d. February 2, 1935, Detroit, Michigan, United States Clara Smith was a blues singer known as the "Queen of the Moaners". She recorded over 125 songs in her career and worked with Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Don Redman and James P. Johnson. She recorded two duets with Bessie Smith, My Man Blues and Far Away Blues. |
Smith, Dr. Charles | b. November 11, 1940, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Dr. Charles Smith is a visual artist, sculptor, historian and activist. Smith is best known for transforming his home and yard into a monumental sculptural environment commemorating the people and events of African and African-American history. |
Smith, Effie Waller | b. January 6, 1879, Chloe Creek, Kentucky, United States d. January 2, 1960, Neenah, Wisconsin, United States Effie Waller Smith was a poet who was featured in The Negro in Revelation, in History, and in Citizenship, a study of the contributions of African Americans. She wrote three poetry collections: Rosemary and Pansies, Rhymes from the Cumberland, and Songs of the Month. |
Smith, Marvin | b. February 16, 1910, Nicholasville, Kentucky, United States d. November 9, 2003, Manhattan, United States Marvin Smith was a photographer known for chronicled Harlem’s workaday life from the 1930s to the ‘50s in photographs alongside his identical twin Morgan. |
Smith, Morgan | b. February 16, 1910, Nicholasville, Kentucky, United States d. February 17, 1993, Place unknown Morgan Smith was a photographer known for chronicled Harlem’s workaday life from the 1930s to the ‘50s in photographs alongside his identical twin Marvin. |
Smith, Trixie | b. 1895, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. September 21, 1943, New York City, New York, United States Trixie Smith was a blues singer, recording artist and vaudeville entertainer. She attended Selma Univeristy before moving to New York in 1915. In 1922 she recorded My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll) and later worked with artists James P. Johnson, Freddie Keppard and Fletcher Henderson. |
Smith, William E. | b. 1913, Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States d. 1997, California, United States William E. Smith was an linocut artist and an instructor of the arts of Karamu House Studios. |
Smith, Wonderful | b. June 21, 1911, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, United States d. August 28, 2008, Los Angeles, California, United States Wonderful Smith was a comedian and actor known for his appearances on the satirical revue Jump for Joy and his “Hello, Mr. President” routine, in which he would pretend to call Franklin D. Roosevelt on the telephone to lampoon the New Deal and World War II preparations. |
Smoove, J. B. | b. December 16, 1965, Plymouth, North Carolina, United States J. B. Smoove is a writer, comedian, and actor who played Leon Black in the TV comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm. His other TV credits include Mapleworth Murders and Real Husbands of Hollywood. He was featured in the films Spider-Man: Far from Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home. |
Snipes, Wesley | b. July 31, 1962, Orlando, Florida, United States Wesley Snipes is an actor, movie producer, and martial artist with starring roles in White Men Can’t Jump, New Jack City, Demolition Man, and the vampire action trilogy Blade. His other film credits include Mo’ Better Blues, Rising Sun, and To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar. |
Snow, Valaida | b. June 2, 1904, Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States d. May 30, 1956, New York City, New York, United States Valaida Snow was a jazz musician and entertainer. She was also known as "Little Louis" and "Queen of the Trumpet" as critics compared her playing to Louis Armstrong. She toured in the United States, Europe, and China. |
Snowden, George | b. July 4, 1904, Place unknown, United States d. 1982, place unknown, United States George "Shorty" Snowden was a dancer. He and his partner Mattie Purnell invented the Harlem Lindy Hop. Snowden and Purnell's invention was based on the breakaway pattern, discovered by accident in a dance marathon. The Harlem Lindy Hop is the longest surviving of the dances, although not the first. |
Spellman, A. B. | b. August 12, 1935, Nixonton, North Carolina, United States A. B. Spellman is a poet, music critic, and arts administrator. He is a former director of the National Endowment of the Arts Expansion Program. He is also the author of the non-fiction work Four Lives in the Bee-Bop Business and the poetry collection The Beautiful Days. |
Spivey, Victoria | b. October 15, 1906, Houston, Texas, United States d. October 3, New York City, New York, United States Victoria Spivey, also known as Queen Victoria, was an American blues singer and songwriter. During her 40-year recording career from 1926 to the 1960s, she worked with Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Clarence Williams and Lonnie Johnson. Her compositions include Black Snake Blues and Dope Head Blues. |
Statom, Therman | b. 1953, Winter Haven, Florida, United States Therman Statom is a sculptor, glass artist, and painter. His public commissions include the Los Angeles Central Public Library and Los Angeles County Metro Rail. |
Steth, Raymond | b. 1917, Norfolk, Virginia, United States d. 1997, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Raymond Steth was a printmaker and educator who worked at Graphic Arts Division of the Federal Art Project (FAP). Steth also directed a Philographic Workshop in 1948. |
Still, William Grant | b. May 11, 1895, Woodville, Mississippi, United States d. December 3, 1978, Los Angeles, California, United States William Grant Still was a composer and conductor. Often referred to as the "Dean of Afro-American Composers". He was the first African-American to conduct a professional symphony orchestra. A composer of nearly two hundred works, he was best known for his Afro-American Symphony and the opera The Troubled Island. |
Stovall, Lou | b. January 1, 1937, Athens, Georgia, United States Lou Stovall is as printmaker and artist and founder of the printmaking company, Workshop, Inc. |
Sul-Te-Wan, Madame | b. 1873, Louisville, Kentucky, United States d. February 1, 1959, Los Angeles, California, United States Madame Sul-Te-Wan, born Nellie Conley, was an actor who appeared in D.W. Griffith’s racist film epic, The Birth of a Nation. She was fired from Griffiths’s film company for allegedly stealing a book from a white actress and inciting African-Americans to protest the film’s showing in Los Angeles. |
Swanson, Howard | b. July 18, 1907, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Howard Swanson was a composer. He was highly regarded for his classical compositions. In 1950, Marian Anderson performed his 1942 setting of a Langston Hughes poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, at New York's Carnegie Hall. Many consider his compositions to be the definitive interpretations of the poet's work. |
Sykes, Rozzell | b. December 25, 1931, Aberdeen, Mississippi, United States d. December 21, 1994, Los Angeles, United States Rozzell Sykes was an award winning painter and founder of St. Elmo Village, an urban renewal project. Sykes established Elmo Village with his nephew and his nephew Roderick Sykes. |
Sykes, Wanda | b. March 7, 1964, Portsmouth, Virginia, United States Wanda Sykes is a comic, producer, and writer. She was previously a writer for The Chris Rock Show and is known for her roles in the TV shows The New Adventures of Old Christine, Wanda Does it, and Black-ish. Her film credits include Monster-in-Law,My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and Ice Age. |
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Talmadge, Eugene | b. September 23, 1884, Forsyth, Georgia, United States d. December 21, 1946, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Eugene Talmadge was a lawyer and politician, and segregationist. As a member of the Democratic Party, he was known for actively promoting segregation and white supremacy and advocating for racism in the University System of Georgia. |
Tarry, Ellen | b. September 26, 1906, Birmingham, Alabama, United States d. September 23, 2008, New York, New York, United States Ellen Tarry was an author and journalist. She wrote The Other Toussaint, a biography of Pierre Toussaint, the Haitian slave supposed to have funded the construction of Manhattan’s old St. Patrick’s Cathedral. She also wrote a book on Katharine Drexel, a philanthropist of the Catholic church. |
Tate, Erskine | b. January 14, 1895, Memphis, Tennessee, United States d. December 17, 1978, Chicago, United States Erskine Tate was a jazz violinist and bandleader. He was an early figure on the Chicago jazz scene, playing with his band, the Vendome Symphony Orchestra, during silent films. His band companions included Louis Armstrong, Freddie Keppard, Buster Bailey, Jimmy Bertrand, and Teddy Weatherford. |
Tatum, Art | b. October 13, 1909, Toledo, Ohio, United States d. November 5, 1956, Los Angeles, California, United States Art Tatum was a jazz pianist. Both his parents were from southern states, his mother from Virginia, and his father from North Carolina. In 1909 they made their way to begin a new life in Ohio, where Tatum was born. Tatum is widely regarded as one of the greatest in his field. He extended the vocabulary and boundaries of the jazz piano through his innovative use of reharmonization, voicing, and bitonality establishing new ground in jazz. |
Taylor-Burroughs, Margaret | b. November 1, 1915, St. Rose, Louisiana, United States d. November 21, 2010, Chicago, Illinois, United States Margaret Taylor-Burroughs was an artist, writer and a co-founder of the DuSable Museum of African American History. She also helped to establish the South Side Community Art Center and the Chicago’s Lake Meadows Art Fair. |
Taylor, Clarice | b. September 20, 1917, Buckingham County, Virginia, United States d. May 30, 2011, Englewood, New Jersey, United States Clarice Taylor was an actor who was a founding member of the Negro Ensemble Company. Her film credits include Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, Play Misty For Me, and Five on the Black Hand Side. She frequently appeared on TV shows like Nurse, Sesame Street, and Sanford and Son. |
Taylor, Koko | b. September 28, 1928, Tennessee, United States d. June 3, 2009, Chicago, Illinois, United States Koko Taylor was born Cora Anna Walton, a blues singer. Willie Dixon wrote her a song Wang Dang Doodle and helped her sign with Chess Records. Its success launched her forty-year career, for which she has won many awards, including a Grammy in 1984. |
Taylor, Regina | b. August 22, 1960, Dallas, Texas, United States Regina Taylor is an actor, director, and playwright. She has appeared in various TV series, such as Lovecraft Country, All Day and a Night, and I’ll Fly Away. Her film credits include Saturday Church, The Negotiator, and Courage Under Fire. She wrote the plays Crowns, Oo-Bla-Dee, and Drowning Crow. |
Thomas, Alma Woodsey | b. September 22, 1891, Columbus, Georgia, United States d. February 24, 1978, Washington, D.C., United States Alma Woodsey Thomas was a painter and the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art. |
Thomas, Truth | b. Date and year unknown, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States Truth Thomas (born Glenn Edward Thomas) is a singer-songwriter and poet. His poetry collections include Party of Black, A Day of Presence, and Speak Water. He is the founder of Cherry Castle Publishing, editor-in-chief of the Skinny Poetry Journal, and coeditor of Tidal Basin Review. |
Thompson, Mildred | b. March 12, 1936, Jacksonville, Florida, United States d. September 1, 2003, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Mildred Thompson was an abstract artist, musician and educator. She spent a large amount of her career travelling around Europe and US, taking part in various artist residencies and exhibitions. Thompson's work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, and New York's Museum of Modern Art. |
Thompson, Ulysses | b. August 28, 1888, Prescott, Arkansas, United States d. March 17, 1990, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States Ulysses "Slow Kid" Thompson was an acrobatic tap dancer and entertainer. His nickname was inspired by his ability to perform a comical and extremely slow dance routine. His credits include Shuffle Along, Dixie to Broadway and Blackbirds 1926. He was married to Florence Mills. |
Thorpe, Mildred "Candi" | b. Mar 21, 1919, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States d. Date and place unknown, United States Mildred "Candi" Thorpe was a tap dancer. In 1939 she partnered with Jewel "Pepper" Welch and performed as the tap dance duo Candi and Pepper. In 1941, they debuted at the Apollo, which launched their performance career with Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Erkstine Hawkins. |
Thrash, Dox | b. February 22, 1893, Spalding County, Georgia, United States d. April 16, 1965, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Dox Thrash was a draftsman, printmaker, watercolorist, and painter. Thrash became the first Black artist to work for the Fine Print Workshop of Philadelphia. He was most known for developing the Carborundum printmaking technique and producing work that representing African-American life in Philadelphia. |
Thurmond, Strom | b. December 5, 1902, Edgefield, South Carolina, United States d. June 26, 2003, Edgefield, South Carolina, United States Strom Thurmond was a South Carolina politician (1954 to 2003) and an opponent of civil rights legislation. He led the longest speech filibuster by a senator, at 24 hours and 18 minutes, in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and against the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. |
Touré, Askia M. | b. October 13, 1938, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States Askia M. Touré is a poet, essayist, and leading member of the Black Arts Movement. With scholar Larry Neal he cofounded the newspaper Afro World. He is the author of From the Pyramids to the Projects: Poems of Genocide and Resistance! |
Traylor, Eleanor W. | b. December 12, 1933, Thomasville, Georgia, United States Eleanor W. Traylor is a writer and scholar of African American literature. She is a professor emeritus and former chair of the English department at Howard University. She is a coauthor of Broad Sympathy: The Howard University Oral Traditions Reader. |
Trethewey, Natasha | b. April 26, 1966, Gulfport, Mississippi, United States Natasha Trethewey is a former poet laureate of the United States and professor of English at Northwestern University. She is the author of five volumes of poetry, including Native Guard, which is about the Black soldiers who fought for the Union during the American Civil War. |
Trotter, Joseph William, Jr. | b. June 18, 1945, Vallscreek, West Virginia, United States Joseph William Trotter Jr. is an author and academic who wrote The Great Migration in Historical Perspective. He is a professor of history and social justice at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is also the founding director of the Center for African American Urban Studies and the Economy. |
Tucker, Earl "Snakehips" | b. August 14, 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States d. May 14, 1937 in New York City, United States Earl Tucker was a dancer and entertainer. He was known as "Snakehips" for the dance he popularized during Harlem Renaissance due to his reputation for excellent hip motion. He performed at the Cotton Club and in the films Crazy House and Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life. |
Turner, Douglas | b. May 5, 1930, Burnside, Louisiana, United States d. February 20, 2021, New York, New York Douglas Turner Ward (born Roosevelt Ward Jr.) was an actor, playwright, and director who cofounded the Negro Ensemble Company. He performed in the opera Lost in the Stars. He also wrote plays, including The Reckoning, Brotherhood, and the epic trilogy The Haitian Chronicles. |
Turney, Matt | b. 1925, Americus, Georgia, United States d. December 20, 2009, Poughkeepsie, New York, United States Matt Turney was a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company for over two decades. She had many roles in major Graham works, including Clytemnestra, Embattled Garden and Appalachian Spring. |
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Underwood, Sheryl | b. October 28, 1963, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States Sheryl Underwood is a comedian, actor, and talk show host. She is the founder of the African-American Female Comedian Association and has appeared on the TV series Def Comedy Jam and BET Comic View. She produced and co-wrote TV’s Holla. Her film credits include IGot The Hookup and Beauty Shop. |
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Veney, Bethany | b. Date and year unknown, Luray, Virginia, United States d. Date and year unknown, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States Bethany Veney was an enslaved woman. She is author of The Narrative of Bethany Veney: A Slave Woman. The book includes details of her childhood, religion, freedom, her new life in the North, and “the overruling Providence” that brought her up out of the “house of bondage.” |
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Walker Overton, Aida | b. February 14 1880, Richmond, Virginia, United States d. October 1, 1914, New York City, New York, United States Aida Overton Walker was a dancer, singer, actress, and choreographer. She was often billed as "The Queen of the Cakewalk". She is known for her performances in Black Patti's Troubadours and Salome and her work as a choreographer for Williams and Walker. |
Walker, Dianne | b. March 8, 1951, Boston, Massachusetts, United States Dianne Walker is a tap dancer. She is known as "Lady Di" and is considered a pioneer in the resurgence of tap dancing. She was the only female to dance in the "Hoofers Line", which included Jimmy Slyde, Ralph Brown, Buster Brown, Bunny Briggs, Savion Glover, Lon Chaney and Chuck Green. |
Walker, George | b. 1873, Lawrence, Kansas, United States d. January 8, 1911, Lawrence, Kansas, United States Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham was a dancer, comedian, and vaudevillian. He was a member of Bessie Smith's Traveling Revue in the 1920s. He later claimed to have originated the Truckin' dance in the 1930s and regularly appeared at the Apollo Theater and The Ed Sullivan Show. |
Walker, Larry | b. October 22, 1935, Franklin, Georgia, United States Larry Walker is an artist and professor emeritus of art known for creating mixed media collages inspired by urban life in Harlem. |
Walker, Margaret | b. July 7, 1915, Birmingham, Alabama, United States d. November 30, 1998, Chicago Illinois, United States Margaret Walker was a writer and educator. She was the author of the poetry collection For My People and the novel Jubilee. She was the founder of the Institute for the Study of the History, Life, and Culture of Black People at the Jackson State College, now known as the Margaret Walker Center. |
Walker, William | b. 1927, Birmingham, Alabama, United States d. 2011, Chicago, Illinois, United States William Walker was a muralist who was known for painting murals of Black historical figures. Walker was part of the the Chicago Mural Group and was one of the leaders in the project involving the Wall of Respect. |
Wallace, Sippie | b.1898, Houston, Texas, United States d. November 1, 1986, Detroit, Michigan, United States Sippie Wallace, born Beulah Belle Thomas, was a blues singer and songwriter also known as the 'Texas nightingale'. She recorded over 40 songs for Okeh Records and performed with jazz great including Louis Armstrong. |
Waller, Naomi | b. Date unknown, South Carolina, United States d. Date and place unknown, United States Naomi Waller was a dancer. She danced in Whitey's Lindy Hoppers until 1938, in a troupe called Whyte's Hopping Maniacs. She was considered Frankie Manning's first professional partner in the Cotton Club show and the subsequent 1937 European tour. |
Walter, Little | b. May 1, 1930, Marksville, Louisiana, United States d. February 15, 1968, Chicago, Illinois Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs, was a blues musician, singer, and songwriter. His virtuosity and musical innovations were revolutionary and exceeded expectations of what was possible from the harmonica in the blues. He is the only harmonica player inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. |
Walter, Mildred Pitts | b. September 9, 1922, Sweetville, Louisiana, United States Mildred Pitts Walter is an author, schoolteacher, and activist. She wrote the memoir Something Inside So Strong and is a former member of the Congress of Racial Equality, fighting to desegregate housing in California. Her novels include Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World. |
Ward, Theodore | b. September 15, 1902, Thibodaux, Louisiana, United States d. May 8, 1983, Chicago, Illinois, United States Theodore Ward was a playwright who cofounded the Negro Playwrights Company. His play on the southern Reconstruction, Our Lan’, was performed on Broadway. He wrote thirty-one plays, including Even the Dead Arise, The Creole, and Big White Fog, a production about Garveyism. |
Washington Jr., James W. | b. 1911, Gloster, Mississippi, United States d. 2000, Seattle, Washington, United States James W. Washington Jr was a painter and sculptor of Seattle, Washington whose work was heavily influenced by spirituality. In 1990 the City of Seattle’s Historic Landmark and Preservation Board designated Washington’s home and studio a cultural landmark. |
Washington, Denzel | b. December 28, 1954, Mount Vernon, New York, United States Denzel Washington is a renowned film actor, director and producer who has won a number of awards. Washington's mother, Lennis, was born in Georgia but grew up in Harlem, New York, after her parents moved the family there in search of a better life. |
Washington, Dinah | b. August 29, 1924, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States d. December 14, 1963, Detroit, Michigan, United States Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones, was a singer and pianist noted for her unique gospel-influenced style. She played at Chicago nightclubs with Sallie Martin’s gospel group and the Lionel Hampton band. Later she had solo success with hits like What a Diff’rence a Day Makes. |
Washington, Fredi | b. December 23, 1903, Savannah, Georgia, United States d. June 28, 1994, Stamford, Connecticut, United States Fredi Washington was an actor best known for her role as Peola in Imitation of Life, a light-skinned African-American woman who passes as white to avoid racial discrimination. She was a co-founder of the Negro Actors Guild and a drama editor for The People’s Voice. |
Waters, Muddy | b. Date unknown, Mississippi, United States d. April 30, 1983, Westmont, Illinois, United States Muddy Waters, born McKinley Morganfield, was a blues guitarist and singer. In 1943 Waters migrated to Chicago where he began playing in clubs and bought his first eletric guitar. He became a significant figure in the post-World War II electric blues and is often referred to as the "father of modern Chicago blues". |
Watkins, Mel | b. March 8, 1940, Memphis, Tennessee, United States Mel Watkins is a journalist and writer. He is a former editor and contributor to The New York Times Book Review. He wrote the memoir Dancing With Strangers, the biography Stepin Fetchit: The Life & Times of Lincoln Perry, and the non-fiction book On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy. |
Watson, Richard J. | b. March 24, 1946, Badin, North Carolina, United States Richard J. Watson is an artist and curator who has been a key staff member and Curator of Exhibits at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. |
Watts, Lewis | b. 1946, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States Lewis Watts is a photographer and educator who is known for capturing pictures of people from Harlem and African-American neighborhoods. Watts holds an MA in Photography and Design from the University of California, Berkeley, where he presently teaches. |
Weatherford, Teddy | b. October 11, 1903, Pocahontas, Virginia, United States d. April 25, 1945, Kolkata, India Teddy Weatherford was a jazz pianist and a stride pianist. He moved from Louisianna to Chicago where he worked with the bands of Erskine Tate through the 1920s and with jazz notables such as Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, and Earl Hines. |
Weathers, Carl | b. January 14, 1948, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Carl Weathers is an actor who previously played in the NFL for the Oakland Raiders. He is best known for playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky film franchise. His other film credits include Predator, Action Jackson, Force 10 from Navarone, and Blaxploitation films Bucktown and Friday Foster. |
Webb, Elida | b. August 9, 1895, Alexandria, Virgina, United States d. May 1, 1975, in New York, United States Elida Webb was a theatrical dancer. She performed in the musical Shuffle Along, and in 1921, she staged musical dance routines for Running Wild on Broadway. She had the longest career of any black female choreographer of her time. |
Weldon, Charles | b. June 1, 1940, Wetumka, Oklahoma, United States d. December 7, 2018, New York, New York, United States Charles Weldon was an actor and director who co-founded the Negro Ensemble Company Alumni Organization. He appeared in stage productions of The River Niger, Seven Guitars, and The Great MacDaddy, a musical survey of African-American history. His film credits include Stir Crazy and The Wishing Tree. |
Wells, James Lesesne | b. November 2, 1902, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. January 20, 1993, Washington, D.C, United States James Lesesne Wells was a graphic artist, and photographer and educator. Wells was known for creating prints which depicted African-American history and concerns. Wells taught at Howard University and during the Depression, he served as the director of a summer art workshop in an old Harlem nightclub. |
Welsh, Kariamu | b. September 22, 1949, Thomasville, North Carolina, United States d. October 12, 2021, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States Kariamu Welsh was a choreographer, dancer, and scholar. She was the founder of the contemporary African-based Umfundalai dance technique. |
West, Dorothy | b. June 2, 1907, Boston, Massachusetts, United States d. August 16, 1998, Boston, Massachusetts, United States Dorothy West was a writer and member of the Harlem Renaissance. Her novels include The Living Is Easy and The Wedding. She had short stories published in the Boston Post and the Urban League’s Opportunity magazine. A collection of her works was published under the title The Richer, The Poorer. |
Weston, Frederick | b. December 9, 1946, Memphis, Tennessee, United States d. October 21, 2020, Manhattan, New York, United States Frederick Eugene Weston was an interdisciplinary artist and activist. He studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology was a historian of popular music, gay nightlife, and black fashion. After receiving receiving a positive HIV diagnosis he became a longtime member of Visual AIDS. |
Whipper, Leigh | b. 1876, Charleston, South Carolina, United States d. 1975, New York, New York, United States Leigh Whipper was an actor who co-founded the Negro Actors Guild. He appeared on Broadway in Of Mice and Men and Set My People Free. His film credits include Bahama Passage, Marjorie Morningstar, and Mission to Moscow, in which he played Emperor Haile Selassie. |
Whitaker, Forest | b. July 15, 1961, Longview, Texas, United States Forest Whitaker is a movie star and director best known for his performances in the films The Last King of Scotland, Platoon, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Marvel’s Black Panther,and Good Morning, Vietnam. His directorial credits include Waiting to Exhale, Hope Floats, and First Daughter. |
White, Charles | b. April 2, 1918, Chicago, Illinois, United States d. 3 October, 1979, Los Angeles, California, United States Charles White was an artist known for his African American subjects. His mother, Ethelene, was born in Mississipi but travelled north to Chicago, where she had Charles, encouraging his artists talents from an early age. |
White, Clarence Cameron | b. 1880, Clarksville, Tennessee, United States d. 12 November 1978, New York City, New York, United States Clarence Cameron White was a neo-romantic composer and concert violinist. His best-known dramatic works are the incidental music for the play Tambour and the opera Ouanga. |
White, Herbert "Whitey" | b. March 1, 1901, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. Aug 12, 1979, Louisiana, United States Herbert "Whitey" White was a former bouncer, ex-prize fighter and creator of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. His troupe won at the Harvest Moon Ball, which resulted in an international tour, Broadway and Cotton Club appearances. Their film credits include Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races and Helzapoppin'. |
White, Maurice | b. December 19, 1941, Memphis, Tennessee, United States d. February 4, 2016, Los Angeles, California, United States Maurice White was a singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was best known as the founder and songwriter of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, which he co-led with Philip Bailey. He also had a successful career with Chess Records and played for artists Etta James and Chuck Berry. |
Whitfield, Lynn | b. February 15, 1953, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States Lynn Whitfield is an actor and producer, who played the performer and activist Josephine Baker in the HBO biopic, The Josephine Baker Story. She also featured in the films A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Gone Fishin, Eve’s Bayou, Head of State, and Madea’s Family Reunion. |
Whitman, Albert "Pops" | b. Date and place unknown, United States d. Date and place unknown, United States Albert "Pops" Whitman was a swing and acrobatics tap dancer and the son of "Baby" Alice Whitman of the Whitman Sisters and tap dancer Aaron Palmer. He performed with Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington during his career. |
Whitman, Alberta "Bert" | b. c. 1887, Lawrence, Kansas, United States d. 1964, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Bert Whitman was a singer and flash dancer in the Whitman Sisters troupe. She was considered one of the best male impersonators of her time, excelling at tap dance and high-kicking legomania. She used sophisticated male impersonation to combat negative stereotypes of Black men in minstrel shows. |
Whitman, Alice | b. c. 1900, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. December 29, 1968, Chicago, Illinois, United States Alice Whitman was a tap dancer in the Whitman Sisters troupe, the longest-running and highest-paid act in Black vaudeville. She was known as the "Queen of Taps" and considered the best female tap dancer in the 1920s. Bill Robinson, Jeni LeGon and Eddie Rector served apprenticeships in the troupe. |
Whitman, Ernest R. | b. February 21, 1893, Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States d. August 5, 1954, Hollywood, California, United States Ernest R. Whitman was an actor and vaudeville performer who featured in the film Gone With the Wind. His other movie credits include The Green Pastures, Jesse James, Cabin in the Sky, Road to Zanzibar, and The Sun Shines Bright. He also played the character Bill Jackson in the radio show Beulah. |
Whitten, Jack | b. December 5, 1939, Bessemer, Alabama, United States d. January 20, 2018, New York, New York, United States Jack Whitten was an abstract expressionist painter who was active New York during the 1960s. |
Wilkinson, Anne Raven | b. February 2, 1935, Harlem, New York City, United States d. December 17, 2018, Manhattan, New York, United States Anne Raven Wilkinson was the first African American woman to sign full-time with a major classical ballet company. In 1955, she started her contract with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo of New York and toured the United States, which could incur threats from the Ku Klux Klan. |
Williams, Charles | b. January 25, 1886, Lexington, Kentucky, United States d. 1978, Place unknown, United States Charles Williams was a choreographer and professor of physical education. In 1934, he established the Hampton Institute Creative Dance Group, the first national touring company composed of college students. He was well known for using African diasporas in his modern dance choreography. |
Williams, Gary Anthony | b. March 14, 1966, Fayetteville, Georgia, United States Gary Anthony Williams is an actor, comedian, and writer best known as the voice of Uncle Ruckus from the animated sitcom The Boondocks. His film credits include Block Party, Undercover Brother, Soul Plane, and The Factory, and he is a member of the comedy improvisation show, The Black Version. |
Williams, Henry "Rubberlegs" | b. July 14, 1907 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. October 17, 1962, New York City, United States Henry Williams was a dancer, jazz singer and occasional female impersonator. He was known as "Rubberlegs" because he danced as if he had legs made of rubber. A star of Vaudeville, in 1933, he appeared in the film Smash Your Luggage and in the shows Cotton Club Parade and Blackbirds. |
Williams, John A. | b. December 5, 1925, Jackson, Mississippi, United States d. July 3, 2015, Paramus, New Jersey, United States John A. Williams was a writer, academic, and journalist who wrote the novel The Man Who Cried I Am. The book is known for its description of the King Alfred Plan, a fictional CIA scheme to kill the United States’ black population. He was also a European correspondent for Ebony and Jet magazines. |
Williams, Lavinia | b. July 2, 1916, Philadelphia, United States d. July 19, 1989, New York City, United States Lavinia Williams was a dancer and dance educator. Her work spanned classical ballet, modern, and Caribbean dance, which she mastered in the 1940s while working with Katherine Dunham—from 1953 to the late 1980s, she taught dance and founded national schools of dance in Haiti, Guyana, and the Bahamas. |
Williams, Mary Lou | b. May 8, 1910, Atlanta, Georgia, United States d. May 28, 1981, Durham, North Carolina, United States Mary Lou Williams, born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs, was a jazz pianist and composer. Born in Atlanta she moved as a young child to Pittsbugh, Pennsylvania. Williams performed and composed for many great jazz artists of the 1940s and ’50, these included Andy Kirk, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker. A notable work of this period was the Trumpet No End, recorded by Duke Ellington in 1946. |
Williams, Michael K. | b. November 22, 1966, New York, New York, United States d. September 6, 2021, New York, New York, United States Michael K. Williams was the son of Booker T. Williams, an American from South Carolina, where his African-American family has deep roots. Michael rose to fame as Omar Little on the TV crime series The Wire. He also starred in The Night Of, Lovecraft Country, Broadwalk Empire, and 12 Years a Slave. |
Williams, Russel | b. Date and place unknown, United States d. Date unknown, United States Russell Williams, also known as Rashul Ali, was a dancer with Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. In 1940, he and his partner Connie Hill won the Harvest Moon Ball competition, and he danced in Frankie Manning's Congaroos Dancers. He died in the 1960s when he attempted to split up a fight between two other men. |
Williams, Samm-Art | b. January 20, 1946, Burgaw, North Carolina, United States Samm-Art Williams is a playwright, screenwriter, and actor. He has acted on stage with the Freedom Theatre and the Negro Ensemble Company, appearing in the plays The Brownsville Raid and Black Body Blues. His works as a playwright include Welcome to Black River and Eyes of the American. |
WIlliams, Spencer | b. 1889, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States d. 1965, Flushing, New York, United States Spencer Williams was jazz and popular music composer. His best known songs include Basin Street Blues and I Ain't Got Nobody. |
Williams, William T. | b. July 17, 1942, Cross Creek, North Carolina, United States William T. Williams is an award-winning painter and art professor. His work was included in the To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities touring exhibit in 1999. |
Wilson, Chandra | b. August 27, 1969, Houston, Texas, United States Chandra Wilson is an actor best known for her role as Dr. Miranda Bailey on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. Her other TV credits include Accidental Friendship, The Sopranos, and Law and Order. She has appeared in stage productions of The Good Times are Killing Me, Caroline, or Change, and the musical Chicago. |
Wilson, Demond | b. October 13, 1946, Valdosta, Georgia, United States Demond Wilson is an actor and preacher known for his role as Lamont Sanford in the TV series Sanford & Son. His film credits include The Organization and All the Women I've Loved. He is the founder of Restoration House Ministries, a church that supports the rehabilitation of former prison inmates. |
Wilson, Dooley | b. Date and year unknown, Tyler, Texas, United States d. May 30, 1953, Los Angeles, California, United States Dooley Wilson was an actor and singer who popularized the song “As Time Goes By,” which he performed in the film Casablanca in his role as the pianist Sam. He was an executive board member of the Negro Actors Guild and featured in the TV sitcom Beulah and Broadway musical Cabin in the Sky. |
Wilson, Edith | b. September 2, 1896, Louisville, Kentucky, United States d. March 31, 1981, Chicago, Illinois, United States Edith Wilson was a blues singer and vaudeville performer. Her career lasted more than six decades. She sang with Duke Ellington, collaborated with Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong on My Man Is Good for Nothing but Love and toured England in 1934 with Bill (Bojangles) Robinson. |
Wilson, Ellis | b. April 20, 1899, Mayfield, Kentucky, United States d. January 1, 1977, Manhattan, New York, United States Ellis Wilson is an award-winning painter who was a member of the Harlem Artists Guild. Wilson also worked for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) on a project to map New York City’s boroughs. |
Wilson, Lena | b. Date unknown, North Carolina, United States d. Date unknown, New York, United States Lena Wilson was a blues singer and vaudeville performer. She made numerous recordings in the 1920s and worked and recorded with the Jazz Hounds, Fletcher Henderson and Edith Wilson. Among her recordings are Memphis, Tennessee, Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness if I Do and Chiropractor Blues. |
Wilson, Mary | b. March 6, 1944, Greenville, Mississippi, United States d. February 8, 2021, Henderson, Nevada, United States Mary Wilson was a singer, author and founding member of The Supremes. The group was signed to Motown records and achieved their first number one hit in 1964 with Where Did Our Love Go. The record sold over a million copies and helped raise the profile both the band and the Motown label internationally. |
Wilson, Woodrow | b. December 28, 1856, Staunton, Virginia, United States d. February 3, 1924, Washington, D.C., Washington, United States Woodrow Wilson was a US president, scholar, and pro-KKK segregationist. In the five-volume A History of the American People, he writes “The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation . . . until at last there had sprung a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South”. |
Winfield, Raymond | b. June 12, 1912, New York City, New York, United States d. January of 1967, New York City, New York, United States Raymond Winfield was a tap dancer. He danced in Tip, Tap, and Toe, a comedy act with Sammy Green and Teddy Frazier. They performed at the Paramount Theatre and the Palace Theatre for Eddie Cantor. They appeared in the films, Scandals (1936),You Can't Have Everything (1937) and All by Myself (1943). |
Winston, Hattie | b. March 3, 1945, Lexington, Mississippi, United States Hattie Winston is an actor best known for her performances in the films Beverly Hills Cop III, Jackie Brown, and True Crime. She also played Margaret Wyborn in the medical TV sitcom Becker. Her other TV credits include Reed Between the Lines, Mike & Molly, and The Soul Man. |
Wolf, Howlin' | b. 1910, Mississippi, United States d. January 10, 1976, Hines, Illinois, United States Howlin' Wolf, born Chester Arthur Burnett, was a guitarist, blues singer, and harmonica player. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the post–World War II era. His career spanned over four decades and helped bridge the gap between Delta blues and Chicago blues. |
Wolfe, George C. | b. September 23, 1954, Frankfort, Kentucky, United States George C. Wolfe is a playwright and artistic director. His plays include Up for Grabs, Tribal Rites, and Spunk. He made his Broadway debut with the musical Jelly’s Last Jam. His play The Colored Museum is set in a museum and explores African American stereotypes in eleven “exhibits” or vignettes. |
Wonder, Stevie | b. May 13, Michigan, United States Stevie Wonder, born Stevland Judkins, is one of America's most well known and respected musicians excelling across genres including r&b, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and jazz. His mother, the songwriter Lula Mae Hardaway was born to sharecroppers in Alabama but sent to Chicago as a teenager, later escaping bad circumstances to live in Michigan. She is credited as writer on Wonder's hit Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours). |
Wood, Bertye Lou | b. April 28, 1905, Newark, New Jersey, United States d. March 7, 2002, New York City, New York, United States Bertye Lou Wood was a tap dancer. In 1931, she was among the first women to dance with Bill Robinson on Broadway in Brown Buddies. She was the dance captain at the Apollo Theater and led the first strike by Black entertainers, calling for higher wages and a week's vacation pay on February 23, 1940. |
Woodard, Alfre | b. November 8, 1952, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States Alfre Woodard is an actor, producer, and political activist. She starred in the films The Family That Preys, 12 Years a Slave, and Juanita and produced the TV series The Porter and the documentary No Small Matter. She is a co-founder of the civil rights organization Artists for a New South Africa. |
Woodson, Carter G. | b. December 19, 1875, New Canton, Virginia, United States d. April 3, 1950, Washington, D.C., Washington, United States Carter G. Woodson was a writer and historian. He was a founder of the Journal of Negro History, dean of the college of arts and sciences at Howard University, and author of A Century of Negro Migration, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, and The Negro in Our History. |
Wright, Richard | b. September 4, 1908, Roxie, Mississippi, United States d. November 28, 1960, Paris France Richard Wright was a novelist and short-story writer. He was the author of the autobiography Black Boy, the novel The Outsider, and the novella series Uncle Tom’s Children. He was the Harlem editor of the Daily Worker. His novel Native Son was staged by Orson Welles as a play on Broadway. |
Wright, Samuel E. | b. November 20, 1946, Camden, South Carolina, United States d. May 24, 2021, Walden, New York, United States Samuel E. Wright was an actor who voiced Sebastian the crab in Disney’s Little Mermaid and sang the movie’s soundtrack “Under the Sea.” His other movie credits include the animation Dinosaur and the biographical film about Charlie Parker, Bird. He also appeared on Broadway in the musical The Lion King. |
Wright, Sarah E. | b. December 9, 1928, Wetipquin, Maryland, United States d. September 13, 2009, Manhattan, New York, United States Sarah E. Wright was a writer and poet best known for This Child’s Gonna Live. The novel tells the story of a young Black woman from Maryland fighting racism and poverty during the Depression. She wrote a volume of poetry titled Give Me a Child and a biography of union organizer A. Philip Randolph. |
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Yerby, Frank | b. September 5, 1916, Augusta Georgia, United States d. November 29, 1991, Madrid, Spain Frank Yerby was an author of popular historical fiction, with a particular focus on the antebellum South. His novels include The Foxes of Harrow and Dahomean. He was a coauthor of The Negro in Illinois, a survey of Black life in Illinois from slavery to the Great Migration. |
Yette, Samuel F. | b. July 2, 1929, Harriman, Tennessee, United States d. January 21, 2011, Laurel, Maryland, United States Samuel F. Yette was an author and journalist who wrote The Choice: The Issue of Black Survival in America. He was a Washington correspondent for Newsweek, a professor of journalism at Howard University, an associate editor of Ebony magazine, and the founder of the publishing house Cottage Books. |
Young, Al | b. 1939, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, United States d. April 17, 2021, California, United States Al Young was a poet, writer, and musician. Known for poetry recitations and writings which drew from his great affection for jazz music, Young published a number of collections, including Something About the Blues and The Sound of Dreams Remembered. He served as California's poet laureate. |
Young, Kenneth Victor | b. December 12, 1933, Louisville, Kentucky, United States d. March 23, 2017, Washington, DC, United States Kenneth Victor Young was an abstract painter and educator. His work was greatly influenced by his knowledge of physics and passion for Jazz. He was one of the first Black exhibit designer at Smithsonian Institution. |
Young, Lester | b. August 27, 1909, Woodville, Mississippi, United States d. March 15, 1959, New York City, New York, United States Lester Young was a jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. He reached prominence for his sophisticated harmonies as a member of Count Basie's orchestra. He accompanied the singer Billie Holiday in several studio sessions and collaborated on recordings with Nat King Cole. |
Young, Marl | b. January 29, 1917, Bluefield, Virginia, United States d. 29 April 2009, Los Angeles, California, United States Marl Young was a musician and arranger who helped merge the all-black and all-white musicians' unions in Los Angeles in the early 1950s. He later became the first black music director of a major network television series, Here's Lucy, starring Lucille Ball. |