People, Locations, Episodes

Joshua Johnson, Portrait Artist born

*The birth of Joshua Johnson in c.1763 is celebrated on this date.  He was a Black artist (painter). Joshua Johnson was from the Baltimore area and had African and white-European ancestry. The son of George Johnson, a white man, and a black slave woman whose name was undocumented.  His father purchased his son from his mother’s owner for 25 […]

Ellis Ruley, Artist born

*Ellis Ruley was born on this date in 1882. He was a Black folk artist and laborer. “Ellis Walter Ruley was born in Norwich, Connecticut, to Joshua Ruley and Eudora Robinson. Joshua Ruley and Robinson had four sons and two daughters, of which Ellis Ruley was the oldest. One account describes the elder Ruley as […]

Ada Crogman Franklin, Kansas City Administrator born

The birth of Ada Crogman Franklin in 1886 is celebrated on this date. She was an African American instructor and administrator in the performing arts.

The Harlem Opera House Opens

*On this date, in 1889, the Harlem Opera House opened. It was an American opera house in the Harlem community of Manhattan in New York City. It was built in 1875 and designed by architect John B. McElfatrick by Oscar Hammerstein; it was his first theater in New York City. An early work at the […]

Prentice Polk, Portrait Photographer born

*Prentice Polk was born on this date in 1898.  He was a Black photographer and professor known for his portraits of African Americans.  Prentice Herman Polk was born in Bessemer, Alabama, the fourth child of Jacob Prentice Polk and Christine Romelia Ward. Originally named Herman Polk, he adopted his father’s name after his death and […]

The Whitman Sisters Quartet are Formed

*The Whitman Sisters quartet is celebrated on this date in 1900.  They were four Black sisters who were stage stars of 20th-century Black Vaudeville. The Whitman Sisters ran their performing touring company for over forty years from 1900 to 1943, becoming the longest-running and best-paid act on the Theater Owners Booking Association circuit. The sisters were the daughters of Reverend Albery Allson Whitman and […]

Miguel Covarrubias, Artist born

*Miguel Covarrubias was born on this date in 1904.  He was a Mexican painter, caricaturist, illustrator, ethnologist, and art historian. He captured the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance in much of his work and his book, Negro Drawings.  José Miguel Covarrubias Duclaud was born in Mexico City. After graduating from the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria at […]

Rudolph Dunbar, Clarinetist and Conductor born

Rudolph Dunbar was born on this date in 1907. He was a Guyanese conductor, clarinetist, and composer.

Dunbar was born in Nabaclis, British Guyana. He was 14 when he joined the British Guiana Militia Band as a clarinet-playing apprentice. He immigrated to the United States five years later, and began studying at the Institute of Musical Art, (now the Juilliard School) in New York, where he was also involved with the Harlem jazz scene. During this time, he was a recording artist, playing clarinet solos. He also established a friendship with Black composer William Grant Still.

Charles Alston, Artist, and Teacher born

On this date we celebrate the birth of Charles Alston in 1907. He was an African American artist and teacher.

Charles Henry Alston was born in Charlotte, N.C. His father died when he was three. Soon after, his mother moved to New York and married Harry P. Bearden (the uncle of artist Romare Bearden). Alston attended DeWitt Clinton High School, taught there, and graduated from Columbia University in 1929. In 1931, he received a master’s degree from Columbia’s Teachers College.

Samuel Felrath Hines Jr., Visual Artist, born

*Samuel Felrath Hines Jr. was born on this date in 1913.  He was a Black visual artist and art conservator.   Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Hines began studying art in 1926 after receiving a scholarship for youth classes at the John Herron School of Art Saturday School. After graduating high school in 1931, Hines worked for the Civilian […]

The Samba (Afro Brazilian Dance), a story

*Samba, also known as samba urbano carioca, is an Afro Brazilian music and dance genre that became popular in the early 20th century. It is celebrated on this date in 1916.   It originated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; it has roots in the cultural expression of West Africa and Brazilian folk traditions, especially those linked […]

Pearl Primus, Choreographer born

*Pearl Primus was born on this date in 1919. She was a Trinidadian American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. Her work helped establish the importance of African American dance in United States culture.

Norma Miller, Dancer, and Choreographer born

*Norma Miller was born on this date in 1919. She was a Black lindy hop dancer, choreographer, actress, author, and comedian known as the “Queen of Swing.” Norma Miller was born in Harlem, New York, to her mother, Alma, and father, Norman, a soldier from Bridgetown, Barbados. She was named after her father, who died from pneumonia a month before her birth. […]

Sam Gilliam, Artist born

*Sam Gilliam was born on this date in 1933. He was a Black color field painter and lyrical abstractionist artist. Sam Gilliam was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and the seventh of eight children was born to Sam and Estery Gilliam. The Gilliams moved to Louisville, Kentucky, shortly after he was born. His father worked on […]

Don Cherry, Jazz Artist born

This date marks the birth of Don Cherry in 1936. He was an African American musician.

Donald Eugene Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, and raised in Los Angeles. He started on trumpet in junior high school and began working with Ornette Coleman in 1956. The Coleman quartet moved to New York City in 1959, creating controversy and making revolutionary albums for Atlantic until it disbanded in late 1961. Shortly thereafter, Cherry worked with a wide array of musicians in this country and Europe: John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Steve Lacy, George Russell, and Albert Ayler.