People, Locations, Episodes

Sallie Martin, Gospel Singer, and Businesswoman born

Sallie Martin was born on this date in 1895. She was an African American gospel singer and businesswoman.

She was born in Pittfield, GA, but after quitting school during the eighth grade, she moved to Atlanta, where she began a run of jobs including babysitting, cleaning houses, and washing clothes. In 1916, she joined the Fire Baptized Holiness Church, enjoying the Sanctified singing she encountered there. During the 1920s, Martin, her husband, and their son relocated to Chicago.

Andy Razaf, Lyricist, and Musician born

On this date in 1895, Andriamanantena Paul Razafinkarefo, better known as Andy Razaf, was born. He was an African American musical lyricist and a major influence in Black theater during the 1920s.

Razaf was a descendant of the royal family of Madagascar. His grandfather, John Louis Walker, a former slave, became counsel to Madagascar. His mother married the nephew of Queen Ranavalona III, before moving to Washington D.C., where Razaf was born.

Florence Mills, Singer, and Dancer born

*On this date in 1896 Florence Mills was born. She was an African American singer, dancer.

From Washington D.C., she was raised in severe poverty. Her parents John and Nellie were illiterate migrants from Lynchburg, Virginia. A young Florence was on stage full-time as a child, first as a “pickaninny” in White vaudeville then as a sister act on the Black popular entertainment circuit.

Ida Cox, Blues Singer born

*On this date in 1896, Ida Cox was born. She was an African American blues singer.

Cox was born Ida Prather in Toccoa, Georgia. Like some of her contemporaries, she left home at an early age and worked the Southern tent show and vaudeville circuit as a comedienne and singer. She spent some time with pianist Jelly Roll Morton before signing a recording contract with Paramount in 1923. Paramount billed her as the Uncrowned Queen of the Blues, though her singing style was as much influenced by vaudeville as by the blues.

Reverend Gary Davis, Blues Musician born

*Rev. Gary Davis was born on this date in 1896. He was an African American minister and Blues musician.

Sylvester Weaver, Blues Guitarist born

*Sylvester Weaver was born on this date in 1896. He was a Black Pullman Porter and blues guitar player, a pioneer of country blues.   From Louisville, KY., Weaver, like his parents, lived most of his life in the Smoketown neighborhood. The financial hardship during the Great Depression indicates that Weaver supported his music career by employing various blue-collar jobs. By 1949, he and his wife, Dorothy, […]

Edith Wilson, Blues Singer born

Edith Wilson was born on this date in 1896. She was an African American blues singer.

Born Edith Goodall, she came from a middle-class black family in Louisville, KY. After deciding on a career in show business and marrying pianist Danny Wilson, she performed in Chicago, Washington, D. C., and New York before accepting a recording contract from Columbia Records in 1921. Backed by Johnny Dunn and the Original Jazz Hounds, Wilson cut “Nervous Blues,” “Vampin’ Liza Jane,” and other songs, most of which were composed or arranged by Perry Bradford.

Joseph Glaser, Entertainer Manager born

*Joseph Glaser was born on this date in 1896. He was a white Jewish American artist manager. Joseph G. Glaser was the son of a Chicago family of Russian Jewish origins. After a series of odd jobs (fight promoter, club manager), with the help of his mob connections, he started managing Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday in […]

Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika” (‘Lord Bless Africa’) is Composed

*”Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika” (‘Lord Bless Africa’) is celebrated on this date in 1897. This song became a pan-African liberation song, and versions were later adopted as the national anthems of five African countries, including Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia, and Zimbabwe after independence and South Africa after the end of apartheid. This Christian hymn was initially composed […]

Marian Anderson, Contralto born

*On this date, Marian Anderson was born in 1897. She was an African American singer, one of the finest contraltos of her time.

Lucille Bogen, Blues Singer born

On this date in 1897, Lucille Bogen was born. She was an African American blues singer.

From Armory, MS, she spent her early years in Birmingham, AL, and had strong ties with that city’s Black underworld. A big-voiced woman, Bogan made some important strides in the classic female blues tradition throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. Singing with surprising frankness about abusive men, prostitution, and a taste for both whiskey and sex, her recorded work is all solidly filled with pro-feminist outlooks, all the more surprising considering the era when her best work was done.

Sidney Bechet, Musician, and Teacher born

Sidney Bechet was born on this date in 1897 in New Orleans. He was an African American jazz musician and composer.

Gonzell White, Singer born

*Gonzell White, also known as Gonzelle White, was born on this date in 1897. She was a Black jazz, blues, and vaudeville performer in the United States.  White was born in Chicago, Illinois.  She also performed as a blues, jazz, and burlesque act and was first mentioned in reports in 1912 and specifically as a […]

Memphis Minnie, Singer born

Memphis Minnie was born on this date in 1897. She was an African American blues musician and singer.

Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith, Composer born

On this date in 1897, “Willie the Lion” Smith was born. He was an African American Jewish jazz pianist and composer.

Born Bertholoff William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Smith in Goshen, New York; he grew up in Newark, N.J, with his mother and stepfather. He began studying piano at the age of six, inspired by his grandmother who played organ and banjo and by the Christian and Jewish music he heard in Harlem and Newark.
He had his bar mitzvah in 1910 and in the 1940s became cantor of the African American synagogue in Harlem.