People, Locations, Episodes

Gordon Heath, Actor born

*Gordon Heath was born on this date in 1918. He was a Black Gay actor and musician. Heath was born in New York City, his parent’s only child. His father, Cyril Gordon Heath, had emigrated from Barbados to the US, where he met and married Hattie Hooper. Young Heath showed an early talent for music and art but opted […]

Eugene Grigsby, Artist, and Professor born

*Eugene Grigsby Jr. was born on this date 1918. He was an African American artist, and educator.

Lorenzo Fuller, Kansas Musician born

*Lorenzo Fuller was born on this date in 1919. He was an African American musician and entertainer.

Loften Mitchell, Playwright born

Loften Mitchell was born this date in 1919. He was an African American playwright, historian, and writer.

From Columbus, North Carolina, his parents were Ulysses Sanford Mitchell and Willia Spaulding Mitchell. In addition to having three brothers, he had one sister, Gladys. The family moved to Harlem before young Mitchell was a month old. His first stage productions were the shows that he and brothers Louis, Melvin, and Clayton performed in the backyard of their home in Harlem.

Lloyd Richards, Media, and Stage Producer born

Lloyd Richards was born this date in 1919. He was an African American film, theater, and video director.

He was born in Toronto, Canada, but at an early age his family moved to Detroit. Lloyd Richards was only nine years old when his father died, leaving his mother to raise five children during the Depression. To make matters worse, soon after his mother became blind. At 13, young Lloyd went to work to help support the struggling family.

Herbert Gentry, Artist born

*Herbert Gentry was born on this date in 1919. He was a Black artist and expressionist painter. Herbert Alexander Gentry was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the son of James Jentry of Madison Courthouse, Virginia, and Violet Howden of Kingston, Jamaica. By 1924, Gentry was living in Harlem, New York City, with his mother and her family. […]

Joe Nash, Choreographer, and Dance Historian born

*Joe Nash was born on this date in 1919. He was an African American dancer, archivist of African American dance and essayist.

Camilla Ella Williams, Operatic Vocalist born

*Ella Williams was born on this date in 1919. She was an African American operatic soprano, and the first African American to have received a contract with a major American opera company.

Ellen Stewart, Theater Director and Producer born

*Ellen Stewart was born on this date in 1919. She was a Black theatre director, producer, and theater owner. From Alexandria, Louisiana, Stewart said that her father was a tailor from Louisiana, her mother was a teacher, and they divorced during her youth. Her family then moved to Chicago, Illinois. She moved to New York […]

Karel Shook, Ballet Master born

*Karel Shook was born on this date in 1920.  He was a white-American ballet master, choreographer, stage administrator, and writer. Karel Shook was born in Renton, Washington, as a child actor in the Seattle Repertory Theatre. He was awarded a scholarship to the Cornish College of the Arts at the age of 13; there, he was encouraged by founder Nellie Cornish to study ballet. […]

Allen Hoskins, Child Actor born.

*Allen Hoskins was born on this date in 1920. He was a Black child actor and rehabilitation counselor.   Allen Clayton Hoskins was born in Boston, but his parents, Clayton H. Hoskins and Florence A. Fortier Hoskins, moved the family to Los Angeles, and in 1922, his acting career began. His younger sister Jannie also appeared […]

Walter H. Williams, Artist born

*Walter H. Williams was born on this date in 1920. He was a Black artist, painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Walter Henry Williams Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York. His mother, a compassionate artist, died from pneumonia when Williams was five. His strict, authoritative father then took custody of him and his younger sister. Due to […]

Afrocubanismo, an article

*Afrocubanismo is affirmed on this date in 1920.  This was an artistic and social movement in Black-themed Cuban culture with origins in the 1920s, as in works by the cultural anthropologist Fernando Ortiz. The Afrocubanismo movement focused on establishing the legitimacy of Black identity in Cuban society, culture, and art. The movement developed in the […]

The Emperor Jones (Stage Play) Debuts

*On this date in 1920, The Emperor Jones held its first performance.  It’s a play written by white-American dramatist Eugene O’Neill.   For the first time in mainstream American Theatre, a production featured a full commitment to the principles of the Art Theatre movement. It’s the story of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured Black (former) Pullman Porter who kills another Black […]

Esther Rolle, Actress of Stage, Screen, and Television born

On this date in 1920, Esther Rolle was born. She was an African American Emmy Award-winning actress.

She was born in Pompano Beach, FL, the tenth of 18 children birb ti parents were of Bahamian descent. Rolle attended Booker T. Washington High School in Miami, and then attended Spelman College for a year before moving to New York. She supported herself by working in a pocketbook factory while auditioning for the theater.