People, Locations, Episodes

Betye Saar, Artist, and Educator born

Betye Irene Saar was born on this date in 1926. She is an African American artist and educator, famous for collages that lampoon racist attitudes about blacks and for installations featuring mystical themes.

Leontyne Price, Opera Singer born

*Leontyne Price was born on this date in 1927. She is an African American operatic singer.

Sam Middleton, Artist born

*Sam Middleton was born on this date in 1927. He was a Black mixed-media artist.  Middleton was born and raised in Harlem, New York City. As a young boy, he often visited the nearby Savoy Ballroom, where jazz and classical music became important inspirations for his artistic endeavors. While working at the Savoy, Middleton designed costumes […]

Artis Lane, Sculptor, and Printmaker born

On this date in 1927, Artis Lane was born. She is an African Canadian sculptor, painter, and printmaker.

Born Artis Marie Shreve in North Buxton, Ontario, Canada, when she was six, she was kneeling in the clay of her grandmother’s farm and fashioning dolls. Ever since, she has been capturing souls and conjuring them into images of unfolding life. A descendant of abolitionist, educator, and publisher Mary Ann Shadd, the soft-spoken painter and sculptor, is an advocate for freeing the human spirit.

The ‘Lindy Hop’ Dance Goes Public

*On this date in 1927, the Lindy Hop dance was publicly introduced to the world. Lindy hop is an African American dance that was born in Harlem, New York City.    On that date, the Lindbergh Spirit of St. Louis airplane completed the first transatlantic flight by air; the Newspaper reported “Lindy Hops the Atlantic,” and the dance […]

Lilian Burwell, Sculptor born

*Lilian Thomas Burwell was born on this date in 1927.  She is a Black sculptor and painter. Lilian Thomas Burwell was born in Washington, DC., part of a creative family; her father was a photographer, her mother was an artist and craftsperson, and both taught art. Her aunt, Hilda Wilkinson Brown, was a renowned painter. She […]

Natalie Hinderas, Pianist, and Composer born

On this date we recognize the birth of Natalie Hinderas in 1927. She was an African American pianist and composer.

She was born Natalie Leota Henderson Hinderas, in Oberlin, Ohio to a musical family; her father (Abram) was a jazz pianist and her mother Leota Palmer was a classical pianist who taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Natalie began playing at the age of three, with formal lessons (piano and violin) beginning at six years of age. A child prodigy, Natalie gave her first full-length recital at eight years old.

Betty Jackson King, Pianist and Choral Conductor born

*Betty Jackson King was born on February 17, 1928. She was a Black pianist, singer, teacher, choral conductor, and composer. Betty Jackson was born in Chicago. She first started learning music from her mother, Gertrude Jackson Taylor. King’s father, Reverend Frederick D. Jackson, a Community Church of Woodlawn pastor, helped expose her to church hymns […]

Will Gaines, Dancer born

Will Gaines was born on this date in 1928. He is an African American dancer, the last in a long line of Jazz Hoofers.

He was born in Baltimore and grew up in Detroit where he learned his craft. At the age of 20 he saw The Duke Ellington and Count Basie Orchestras, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday. From there Gaines worked with such greats as Lucky Thompson, Kenny Burrell, Tommy Flanagan and Sonny Stitt at the Apollo, NY 1954.

William Pleasant, Artist born

William Merriette Pleasant, Jr., an African American artist, was born on this date in 1928.

He was born in Savannah, GA, and a graduate of that cit’s Beach High School. Pleasant attended Savannah State College, Delaware State College, and Tyler School of Fine Arts of Philadelphia, PA. He is a graduate of York College of York, Pennsylvania. He was one of the first members of the Bahai Faith of Savannah, and served on its assembly. Pleasant was a 33 degree Mason, a corporal in the United States Air Force, and a member of the Mu Eta Kappa Fraternity.

Ted Joans, ‘Spoken Word’ Artist born

Ted Joans was born on this date in 1928. He was an African American painter, trumpeter, and a jazz poet.

From Illinois, He studied trumpet, sang bebop, and earned a B.A. in Fine Arts from Indiana University before moving to Greenwich Village in New York City in 1951. He was one of the first Beat poets, and authored over 30 books of poetry, prose, and collage, including Black Pow-Wow, Beat Funky Jazz Poems, Afrodisia, Jazz is Our Religion, Double Trouble, Wow, and Teducation.

T. J. Anderson, Musician, and Composer born

*T.J. Anderson was born on this date in 1928. He is a Black musician and composer.  From Coatesville, Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson Anderson has received degrees from West Virginia State College, Penn State University, and a Ph.D. in Composition from the University of Iowa. He also holds several honorary degrees. During this time, Anderson married his […]

Cecil Taylor, Pianist, and Poet born

*Cecil Taylor was born on this date in 1929. He was a Black pianist and poet.   Cecil Percival Taylor was raised in the Corona, Queens neighborhood of New York City. As an only child in a middle-class family, Taylor’s mother encouraged him to play music at an early age. He began playing piano at age six and went on to study at […]

James Barnor, Ghanaian Photographer born.

*James Barnor was born on this date in 1929. He is a Black African photographer. Frederick Seton James Barnor was born in Accra, Ghana, West Africa. At 17, Barnor was teaching basket weaving at a missionary school, and the headmaster gave him a camera “to play around with–it was a Kodak Brownie 127, made of plastic”. […]

Vincent Smith, Artist, and Teacher born

*Vincent Smith was born on this date in 1929. He was a Black artist, painter, printmaker, and teacher known for his depictions of black life. Vincent DaCosta Smith was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn to Beresford Leopold Smith and Louise Etheline Todd. Both were immigrants from Barbados. He was raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and […]