*Jamaa Fanaka was born on this date in 1942. He was an African American film director and media activist.
He was born Walter Gordon in Jackson, Miss., one of five children of Robert and Beatrice Gordon. His parents moved to the Los Angeles area when he was a boy. His father was an electrician. After serving in the Air Force, he was adrift until he entered a community college film program, which led him to the U.C.L.A. film school.
learn more*On this date in 1942, Lola Falana was born. She was an American singer, dancer, model, actress, and minister. Loleta Elayne Falana was Born in Camden, New Jersey; she was the third of six children born to Bennett, a welder, and Cleo Falana, a seamstress. Her father, an Afro Cuban, left his homeland of Cuba to […]
learn more*This date in 1942 celebrates the founding of Johnson Publishing Company, Inc. (JPC), an African American print and media publishing business. Johnson Publishing Company was founded by John Harold Johnson, who was working as an office clerk for Chicago-based Supreme Life Insurance Company of America. Using money from a $500 loan secured with his mother’s furniture, […]
learn more*Sara Gómez was born on this date in 1942. She was an Afro Cuban filmmaker. Sara Gómez, aka Sarita Gómez, came from the folkloric Havana neighborhood of Guanabacoa. Her community was of Afro Cuban popular culture and a marginal sector of Cuba with many issues, such as racism and gender inequality. She studied music (piano), […]
learn more*Bill Duke was born on this date in 1943. He is an African American actor and film director.
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, Duke received his first instruction in the performing arts at Boston University where he majored in speech and drama. After also studying at New York University’s Tisch School of Arts and the AFI Conservatory, Duke began his career behind the camera, directing episodes of several noteworthy 1980s television series, including Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice.
learn more*Don Mitchell was born on this date in 1943. He was an African American actor.
learn more*Leslie Uggams was born on this date in 1943. She is a Black actress and singer. Leslie Marian Uggams was born in Harlem, NYC, the daughter of Juanita Ernestine (Smith), a Cotton Club chorus girl/dancer, and Harold Coyden Uggams, an elevator operator and maintenance man, a singer with the Hall Johnson choir. She attended the Professional Children’s School of New York and Juilliard. Uggams […]
learn more*Patrick Ellis was born on this date in 1943. He was a Black radio show host and production director. Patrick Connery Ellis was born at Freedman’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. His mother, Ida Delaney Ellis, was a teacher, and his father, Roy Alexander Ellis, was a government labor relations specialist. He had one brother, Roy M. Ellis. After attending public schools, Ellis […]
learn more*Georg Stanford Brown was born on this date in 1943. He is an Afro Cuban actor and director. Brown was seven years old and born in Cuba when his family moved from Havana to Harlem, N.Y. At 15, he formed The Parthenon singing group. Brown quit high school at 16 and left New York to move to […]
learn more*This date in 1943 marks the birth of Altovise Davis. She was an African American actress and dancer. She also was the wife of Sammy Davis Jr.
Born Altovise Gore in Charlotte, North Carolina she was the only child of Altovise and John Gore. When she was very young her family moved to Brooklyn, N. Y. where she graduated from the School of Performing Arts in 1961. After school she began her career as a dancer on Broadway.
learn more*The release of the film The Negro Soldier is celebrated on this date in 1944. The United States Army created this documentary film and used the film as propaganda to convince Black Americans to enlist in the Army and fight in the war. During World War II, while the U.S. Army was officially racially segregated, […]
learn more*Judy Richardson was born on this date in 1944. She is a Black Film producer, author, educator, and activist. Born in Tarrytown, New York, her father was autoworker William King Richardson, and her mother stated office worker Mae Louise Tucker Richardson. Richardson grew up in the “under the hill” section of Tarrytown. The town was […]
learn more*Anthony Barboza was born on this date in 1944. He is a Black photographer, historian, artist and writer. From New Bedford, Massachusetts, he has family roots in Cape Verde. From work that began in commercial art more than forty years ago, Barboza’s artistic talents and successful career helped him to cross over and pursue his passions in the […]
learn more*Roscoe Orman was born on this date in 1944. He is a Black actor, writer, artist, and child advocate. Orman was born in The Bronx, New York. While a student at New York City’s High School of Art and Design, Orman made his theatrical debut in the 1962 topical revue “If We Grow Up.” He […]
learn more*Denise Nicolas was born on this date in 1944. She is a Black retired actress and writer. From Detroit, MI, Nicholas attended the University of Michigan and studied acting in New York. Her stage career began as an apprentice with the Free Southern Theater, touring rural Louisiana and Mississippi during the American Civil Rights Movement. […]
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