Jamael Dean and the Afronauts Live | Black Cultural Events

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Feb

7

1883

Though some sources report Laverne Cox’s year of birth as 1984, Who2 research suggests the actual year is 1972, or very close to it. Her birthday of May 29 was reported by Playbill in 2014… Laverne Cox’s twin brother is the avant-garde artist and musician M. Lamar. He played her as a pre-transition

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Waller, Fats

Waller, Fats, 1904–43, American jazz musician, singer, and composer, whose original name was Thomas Wright Waller, b. New York City. Waller began playing the piano as a child, and later studied with Carl Bohm and Leopold Godowsky. He became a protégé of James P. Johnson, who gave him piano lessons

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Fitzgerald, Ella (1917-1996)

Ella Fitzgerald was a female jazz singer considered without equal at the height of the jazz era. Her voice had an amazing and vibrant range that allowed her to sing nearly every jazz style. Ella was also an accomplished composer and bandleader who performed into the

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Source: Black Past

Apr

25

1917

Morgan, Michael (1957- )

As a classical music conductor, Michael Morgan has been instrumental in bringing his eclectic orchestral leadership style to a diverse audience. Since becoming musical director of the Oakland East Bay Symphony Orchestra in 1990, Morgan has become well respected, particularly in the African American

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Source: Black Past

Hunter, Alberta (1895-1984)

Alberta Hunter was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but left for Chicago, Illinois at age 11 after her father died. She peeled potatoes in a boarding house until she could find a job singing blues, the first opportunity was at a Chicago brothel, as entertainment for the prostitutes and their

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Source: Black Past

Vanessa Williams

Vanessa Lynn Williams is a Grammy nominated singer, former beauty queen and television and film actress. She was born on March 18, 1963 in Bronx, New York but soon moved to a more fashionable neighborhood. Her parents, Milton and Helen Williams, both worked as music teachers and so Williams and her

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Source: Black History Resources

Mar

18

1963

Dobbs, Mattiwilda (1925- )

Mattiwilda Dobbs, an accomplished opera star, was born July 11, 1925 in Atlanta, Georgia. Although she was the fifth of six daughters and her father worked as a mail clerk, he was able to provide her and all of her sisters with a college education. Dobbs began singing and playing the piano as

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Source: Black Past

Mar

8

1954

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was a blues and jazz vocalist, who was extremely popular in the 1920s and 1930s. She was born on April 15, 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee to Laura and William Smith. Her father was a Baptist preacher who died shortly after her birth, and she was raised by her mother along with her

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Source: Black History Resources

Apr

15

1894

Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker is an acclaimed American actor, producer and director. He was born on July 15, 1961 in Longview, Texas to an insurance salesman named Forest Steven Jr. and a special education teacher named Laura Francis. The family moved to California when Whitaker was four years old. He attended

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Source: Black History Resources

Jul

15

1961

Fitzgerald, Ella

Fitzgerald, Ella, 1917–96, American jazz singer, b. Newport News, Va. Probably the most celebrated jazz vocalist of her generation, Fitzgerald was reared in Yonkers, N.Y., moving after her mothers death (1932) to Harlem, where two years later she won an amateur contest at the Apollo

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Musician Miles Davis receives award

In Paris, jazz trumpeter Miles Davis was named a Knight in the (French) Legion of Honor, one of that nations highest cultural honors.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jul

16

1991

Perry, Cynthia Shepard (1928- )

Cynthia Shepard Perry, a Republican and 25 year career diplomat, has served three Republican presidents. President Ronald Reagan appointed her as Chief of Education and Human Resources of the U.S. Agency for International Development where she served from 1982 to 1986, and named her Ambassador to

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Source: Black Past

Mar

21

1999

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

Cassandra Wilson

Cassandra Wilson (born. Dec 4, 1955) is a best known as an American songwriter, singer, jazz musician and music producer who hails from Jackson, Mississippi. Wilson, whose ancestry includes Welsh, Eastern European and West African blood is the third youngest child of jazz musician Herman Fowlkes

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Source: Black History Resources

Dec

4

1955

Ailey, Alvin (1931-1989)

Alvin Ailey was born in Rodgers, Texas during the Great Depression. He overcame racism, poverty, and homophobia to become one of the most celebrated choreographers in American history. His single teenage mother Lula Ailey washed clothes, picked cotton, and worked in domestic service in various

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Source: Black Past

Cole, Nat “King” (1919–1965)

Jazz pianist and popular singer Nathaniel Adams Coles was born into a musical family in Montgomery, Alabama on March 17, 1919. His mother Perlina was a choir director in his father Edward’s Baptist church. His three brothers, Edward, Ike, and Freddy, became professional musicians. Cole also had

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Source: Black Past

Feb

15

1965

Williams, Vanessa (1963- )

Vanessa Lynn Williams was born in Tarrytown, New York on March 18, 1963. She is the daughter of Helen and the late Milton Williams who were music teachers. She has a younger brother, Christopher, who is also an actor. Williams was the first African American woman to win the Miss America title on

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Source: Black Past

Smith, Ada “Bricktop” (1894-1984)

Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith (“Bricktop”), vaudevillian actress, singer, nightclub owner, and international celebrity host, was born August 14, 1894 in Alderson, West Virginia, to Thomas and Hattie Thompson Smith. Her father passed away in 1898 and Mrs. Smith moved

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Source: Black Past

Jan

31

1984

Virginia State University (1882 - )

Virginia State Universityis a public, historically black college located in Petersburg, Virginia. The university is the first fully supported,four year institution for African Americans in the UnitedStates and is one of two land-grant colleges in the Stateof

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Source: Black Past

Jazz artist Tony Williams dies

Award-winning jazz drummer Tony Williams dies in Daly City, California

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Feb

3

1997

The Trillion Dollar African American Consumer Market: Economic Empowerment or Economic Dependency?

Collective African American net income (spending power) now exceeds $1 trillion dollars annually. Because of this economic reality, a wide variety of contemporary companies continually create marketing campaigns to effectively reach this important segment of the U.S. consumer market. Yet, in the

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Source: Black Past

Abele, Julian F. (1881-1950)

The legacy of architect Julian Francis Abele was brought into focus in the mid-1980s when in the midst of a student protest at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, his great grandniece reminded the campus community that her long unsung ancestor was responsible for the eleven original

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Source: Black Past

Apr

21

1881

Johnson, Francis (1792-1844)

Francis Johnson, musician, composer, and bandmaster, was born in 1792 in Martinique in the West Indies and emigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1809 at the age of 17. By that point he had already mastered the keyed bugle and the violin. By his early 20s he was building a reputation as

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Source: Black Past

Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970)

The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War, was a three-year, bloody conflict with a death toll numbering more than one million people. Having commenced seven years after Nigeria gained independence from Britain, the war began with the secession of the southeastern region of

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Source: Black Past

Bullard, Eugene James ["Jacques"] (1895-1961)

Eugene James (Jacques) Bullard, the first African American combat aviator, was known as the “black swallow of death” for his courage during missions. He led a colorful life, much of it in

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Source: Black Past

Oct

9

1895

Schuyler, Phillippa Duke (1931-1967)

Phillippa Duke Schuyler was a child pianist, composer, and later journalist. Schuyler, born August 2, 1931, grew up in Harlem, and was the only child of George S. Schuyler, a prominent black journalist, and Josephine Cogdell, a white Texan from a wealthy and socially prominent family. Her parents

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Source: Black Past

May

9

1967

From Opera, Minstrelsy and Ragtime to Social Justice: An Overview of African American Performers at Carnegie Hall, 1892-1943

“It is probable that this hall will intertwine itself with the history of our country,” said Andrew Carnegie in 1890, when he laid the cornerstone of the building that would become Carnegie Hall. In keeping with Carnegie’s firm belief in egalitarianism and meritocracy, the hall that

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Source: Black Past

Bonds, Margaret (1913-1972)

Margaret Bonds was a pianist and composer noted for her musical adaptations of Shakespeare and collaboration with Langston Hughes. Bonds was the first African American soloist to appear with the Chicago Symphony and played an important role in the development of twentieth century classical and

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Source: Black Past

Apr

26

1972

Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Hill has five children with Rohan Marley, son of reggae legend Bob Marley: Zion David Hill-Marley (born 1997), Selah Marley (b. 1998), Joshua Marley (b. 2002), John Marley (b. 2003) and a baby girl born in 2008, whose name she has not publicly revealed… She and Marley have never married… On

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

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