*Tyler Perry was born on this date in 1969. He is a Black actor, filmmaker, and playwright. Perry was born Emmitt Perry Jr. in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Willie Maxine Perry (Campbell) and Emmitt Perry Sr., a carpenter. He has three siblings. In contrast to his father, his mother took him to church each week, where […]
learn more*The birth of Germaine Acogny is celebrated on this date in 1944. She is a Black African dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Born in Benin to a Senegalese civil servant, Germaine Acogny was also a descendant of the Yoruba people through her grandmother. When she was 10, the family moved to Dakar, Senegal, where she spent the remainder of her […]
learn more*On this date in 1943, the Detroit race riot took place. This was a two-day episode of racial unrest in Michigan’s largest city. By 1920, Detroit had become the fourth-largest city in the United States, driven by an industrial and population boom fueled by the rapid expansion of the automobile industry. In this era of […]
learn more*Shais Rishon was born on this date in 1982. He is a Black Orthodox rabbi, activist, and writer. Shais Rishon, known by the pen name MaNishtana, was born in Brooklyn, New York, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family linked with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He says his mother’s ancestors have practiced Judaism since the 1780s. His father, Asher Rishon, […]
learn more*On this date in 1926, Corrigan v. Buckley, 271 U.S. 323 (1926), was decided. This U.S. Supreme Court case ruled that the racially restrictive covenant of multiple residents on S Street N.W., between 18th Street and New Hampshire Avenue, in Washington, DC, was a legally binding document that made selling a house to a Black […]
learn more*Joe Dudley was born on this date in 1937. He was a Black businessman and hair-care entrepreneur. Joe Louis Dudley Sr. was born in Aurora, North Carolina, the fifth of 11 children. When he was in the first grade, he was mistakenly labeled as mentally retarded because of a speech impediment. He had twice been […]
learn more*Pearl Moore was born on this date in 1957. She is a retired Black woman’s professional basketball player. Born in Florence, South Carolina, Moore began playing basketball while attending Wilson High School. She started for all four years and earned the MVP award at the 1975 and 1976 AAU Junior Olympic Games. Moore began her collegiate career […]
learn more*LeRoy Foster was born on this date in 1925. He was a Black Gay painting artist. Foster was born in Detroit and lived there his entire life, except for a brief time when he studied Art in Europe in the 1940s. Foster began drawing at age five or six and was an exceptional art student, recognized by teachers […]
learn more*Philip Simmons was born on this date in 1912. He was a Black artisan and blacksmith specializing in the craft of ironwork. Philip Simmons was born in Daniel Island, South Carolina. His grandparents raised him before he was sent to Charleston in 1920 to live with his mother when he was eight. Simmons resided on Vernon Street […]
learn more*Chaka Khan was born on this date in 1953. She is a Black singer known as the ‘Queen of Funk.’ Khan was born Yvette Marie Stevens into an artistic, avant-garde household in Chicago, Illinois. The eldest of five children was born to Charles Stevens and Sandra Coleman. She described her father as a beatnik and […]
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