Black named soloist with Boston Symphony Orchestra

African-American Dancers

Pearl Primus was the first African-American modern dancer. Throughout her career, Primus used her craft to express social ills in United States’ society. In 1919, Primus was born and her family immigrated to Harlem from Trinidad. While studying anthropology at Columbia University, Primus began her

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Source: ThoughtCo

Spingarn Medal: Mary B.Talbert

Spingarn Medal awarded to Mary B. Talbert, former president of the National Association of Colored Women, for service to Black women and for restoration of the Frederick Douglas home.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Nov

20

1922

Hispanic Workers Worry About Brexit’s Smallest Land Boundary

But if this has been a politically fraught period for many in Gibraltar, for the approximately 15,000 workers who regularly cross the border with Spain it has been a time of tremendous anxiety and

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Source: The Washington Informer

Hackley, Emma Azalia (1867-1922)

Emma Azalia Smith Hackley was an African American singer and Denver political activist born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1867. Her parents, business owners Henry and Corilla Smith, moved to Detroit where she attended Washington Normal School, graduating in 1886. Smith, a child prodigy learned to

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Source: Black Past

Dec

13

1922

Spingarn Medal :Langston Huges

Poet Langston Hughes presented Spingarn Medal and cited as the poet laureate of the Negro race.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Dec

30

1960

Spingarn Medal: Paul Robeson

Spingarn Medal presented to Paul Robeson for his outstanding achievement in the theater, on the concert stage, and in the general field of racial welfare.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Nov

3

1945

Jessye, Eva (1895-1992)

Eva Jessye was a pioneer in the world of African American music and is recognized as the first black woman to receive international distinction as a choral director. She was born in Coffeyville, Kansas on January 20, 1895 to Albert and Julia Jessye, but was raised by various relatives after her

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Source: Black Past

Oct

1

1978

Anderson, Marian (1897-1993)

Marian Anderson, renowned contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the 20th Century, was born on February 27, 1897 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Anderson was the daughter of John Berkley Anderson, a small business owner, and Annie Delilah Rucker Anderson, a former Virginia

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Source: Black Past

Springarn Medal: Paul R. Williams

Spingarn Medal presented to Paul R. Williams for his achievements as an architect.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Dec

31

1953

OP-ED: Celebrating the Journey of Black Music and its Impact on American Culture

By H. Beecher Hicks, III, President & CEO of the National Museum of African American Music

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Source: Afro | The Black Media Authority

Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement, whom the United States Congress called the first lady of civil rights and the mother of the freedom

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Source: Black Inventors

Alex Haley

Alexander Murray Palmer Haley, better known as Alex Haley, was a celebrated author whose books centered around African American heritage. He was born on August 11, 1921 in Ithaca, New York to Simon and Bertha Palmer Haley. For the first few years of his life he lived in Tennessee with his mother

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Source: Black History Resources

Aug

11

1921

Scott Joplin

Scott Joplin was a 19th century composer and founder of the ragtime genre of music. He was born in Linden, Texas, somewhere between late 1867 to early 1868 and was the youngest of six children born to Giles Joplin (a former slave) and Florence Givens. His family was musically inclined which gave

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Source: Black History Resources

Apr

1

1917

Claude McKay

Claude McKay , (born September 15, 1889, Nairne Castle, Jamaica, British West Indies—died May 22, 1948, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), Jamaican-born poet and novelist whose Home to Harlem (1928) was the most popular novel written by an American black to that time. Before going to the U.S. in 1912, he

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Source: Brittanica

May

22

1948

Spingarn Medal

Spingarn Medal awarded to Col. Charles Young, U.S. Army, for organizing the Liberian constabulary and establishing order on the frontiers of Liberia.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Nov

7

1916

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou , original name Marguerite Annie Johnson (born April 4, 1928, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.—died May 28, 2014, Winston-Salem, North Carolina), American poet, memoirist, and actress whose several volumes of autobiography explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual

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Source: Brittanica

May

28

2014

Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte , byname of Harold George Belafonte, Jr. (born March 1, 1927, New York City, New York, U.S.), American singer, actor, producer, and activist who was a key figure in the folk music scene of the 1950s, especially known for popularizing the Caribbean folk songs known as calypsos. He

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Source: Brittanica

Mar

1

1927

Nat King Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. He was widely noted for his soft baritone voice, performing in big band and jazz genres, and was a major force in popular

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Source: AA Studies Research Guide

Feb

15

1965

Principal Harpist in BSO

Ann Hobson Pilot is the principal harpist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra ( BSO). As the only African-American in the BSO for over 20 years, she started as a second harpist in 1969, moved to associate harpist and then to principal harpist in 1980. Nationally she is the only principal

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Source: African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years

Spingarn Award: George Washington Carver

Spingarn Medal awarded to George Washington Carver, head of the department of research, Tuskegee Institute, for his pioneering work in agricultural chemistry.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jan

17

1923

Pullman Company formally recognized the

Pullman Company formally recognized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Spingarn Medal awarded to Walter White, NAACP secretary, for his leadership and work in the anti-lynching movement.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Oct

1

1937

Theodore Bikel

Theodore Bikel (Theodor Meir Bikel), (born May 2, 1924, Vienna, Austria—died July 21, 2015, Los Angeles, Calif.), Austrian-born character actor. folksinger, and political activist who created the role of Capt. Georg von Trapp (and received a Tony Award nomination) in the original Broadway

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Source: Brittanica

Jul

21

2015

Spingarn Medal: Charles W. Chestnutt

Spingarn Medal presented to Charles W. Chestnutt, the first Black to receive widespread critical recognition as a novelist. He was cited for his pioneer work as a literary artist depicting the life and struggle of Americans of Negro descent.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Nov

6

1928

From Race Records to R&B

However, R&B or RnB as far as a name didn’t exist on music charts or records released until the

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Source: Black Then

Privacy rights and protection/safety needs clash over COVID-19

“Both privacy of individuals and protection of first responders are very important, but they are not mutually exclusive,” said State Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-93), chairman of the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators

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Source: TSDMemphis.com - The New Tri-State Defender - TSDMemphis.com

Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson was a singer, actor and African-American activist whose performing career was hampered by the anti-communist craze of the 1950s. Paul Robeson attended Rutgers College on a scholarship and proved himself to be a stellar athlete and student. The colleges only black student, he was an

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Stars Speak Up For Black LGBTQ Lives After Video Shows Attack On Transgender Woman

Billy Porter has joined a chorus of celebrities and advocacy groups in speaking up for the Black LGBTQ community this week after troubling footage showing an alleged attack on a transgender woman went

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Source: HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost-0

Albert Ayler

Albert Ayler , (born July 13, 1936, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.—died November 1970, New York, N.Y.), African-American tenor saxophonist whose innovations in style and technique were a major influence on free

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Source: Brittanica

Jul

13

1936

Spingarn Medal: Damon J. Keith

Spingarn Medal awarded Damon J. Keith in tribute to his steadfast defense of constitutional principles as revealed in a series of memorable decisions he handed down as a United States District Court judge.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Nov

5

1974

OP-ED: Celebrating the Journey of Black Music and its impact on American Culture

By H. Beecher Hicks, III, President & CEO of the National Museum of African American Music

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Source: Black News, Politics, Commentary & Culture | BlackPressUSA

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