People, Locations, Episodes

Julia López, Artist born

*Julia López’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1936. She is a self-taught Afro Mexican painter. López was born in a small village near Ometepec on the Costa Chica of Guerrero. She was one of eight daughters born to African and (Amuzgo) Indigenous heritage parents. Her parents raised cotton, chili peppers, tobacco, sesame seeds, […]

The Negro Actors Guild Begins

*On this date in 1936, the Negro Actors Guild (NAG) is celebrated.   Formed in 1936, the Negro Actors Guild of America (NAG) wanted to eliminate stereotyping of African Americans in theatrical and cinematic performances.  They began operations in 1937 to create better opportunities for Black actors during a period in America when the country was […]

Lou Stovall, Print-Maker born

Lou Stovall, an African American master printmaker and artist, was born on this date in 1937.

Born in Athens, Georgia, he grew up in Springfield, MA, where he attended Technical High School. Stovall initially studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design and at Howard University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Since 1962, he has lived and worked in Washington, D.C. Over the years he has won numerous awards, but perhaps his most enduring legacy is his work in the community.

Billy Dee Williams, Actor born

*Billy Dee Williams was born on this date in 1937. He is a Black actor, voice actor, and artist.   William December Williams Jr. was born in New York City, the son of Loretta Anne, a West Indian-born elevator operator at the Lyceum Theatre. She was an aspiring performer from Montserrat, and William December Williams, Sr., a Black and Native American caretaker from Texas. He grew up in Harlem. He used to […]

Robert Hooks, Actor, and Theatre Advocate born

*Robert Hooks was born on this date in 1937. He is a Black actor, producer, and activist.   Hooks was born in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C, the youngest of five children. His mother was Mae Bertha (Ward), a seamstress, and Edward Hooks, who had moved from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, with their four other children, Bernice, Caroleigh, Charles Edward “Charlie,” and James […]

Ron O’Neal, Actor born

*Ron O’Neal was born on this date in 1937. He was an African American actor.

From Utica, NY he got his big break when he was cast in Charles Gordone’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play No Place to Be Somebody, which began at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater and later went to Broadway in 1969. The producers of “Superfly,” urban crime film were impressed with his work. They cast him as the movie’s lead character, a cool cocaine dealer named Youngblood Priest. “Superfly” became an unexpected hit, one of the defining films of the twentieth century Blaxploitation genre.

Charles Fuller, Playwright born

*Charles Fuller was born on this date in 1939. He is an African American playwright.

From Philadelphia, Fuller is the son of Charles H., a printer, and Lillian (Anderson) Fuller. From 1956-1958, young Fuller attended Villanova University, and from 1965-1968, LaSalle College where he earned a D.F.A..

Cleavon Little, Actor born

*Cleavon Little was born on this date in 1939. He was a Black stage, film, and television actor. Cleavon Jake Little was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, the son of Malachi Little and DeEtta Jones Little. He was the brother of singer DeEtta Little West; he had another sister, Rosemarie Little Martin, and two brothers, Everett […]

Novella Nelson, Stage, and Film Actress born

*Novella Nelson was born on this date in 1939. She was a Black actress and singer. Novella Christine Nelson was born in Brooklyn, New York, to James and Evelyn (formerly Hines) Nelson. Her father was a pastor and a taxi driver, and her mother was an executive assistant at magazine publisher Women’s Wear Daily. In […]

The American Negro Theater is Formed

On this date in 1940, The American Negro Theater (ANT) was organized in Harlem, New York. Coordinators were Frederick O’Neal, Abram Hill, and members of the McClendon Players.

ANT was a pioneering African American theater company and school in which several hundred Black actors, writers, and technicians began their careers. The Academy Award-winning actors Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee and actor and singer Harry Belafonte, are three of the prominent African-

John O’Neal, Playwright, and Activist born

*John Milton O’Neal Jr., a black playwright and activist, was born on this date in 1940. His father, a teacher from Mound City, Ill., and his mother, Rosetta (Crenshaw) O’Neal, were both teachers. In 1962, he received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and English at Southern Illinois University. His daughter said that when he was […]

Alvin Singleton, Composer born

*Alvin Singleton was born on this date in 1940. He is a Black composer. Born and raised in New York City, he received his music education from New York University (B.A.) and Yale School of Music (M.M.). Singleton was a Fulbright Scholar in Rome, Italy, from 1971-1985. After that, Singleton returned to the United States […]

Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Artist born

*Mary Lovelace O’Neal was born on this date in 1942. She is a Black artist and arts educator. Mary Lovelace was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and credits her father for nurturing her love of the arts. During her childhood and adolescence, O’Neal’s father, Ariel Lovelace, was the choir director and professor of music at Tougaloo […]

Gilbert Moses, Stage, and Media Artist born

*Gilbert Moses was born on this date in 1942. He was a Black activist, actor, and director in theater, television, and film. Gilbert Moses III was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and began acting as a child at Karamu House. He studied at Oberlin College and spent a year at Sorbonne University in Paris before leaving […]

Tania León, Composer, Conductor, and Educator born

*Tania León was born on this date in 1943. She is an Afro Cuban American composer of large-scale and chamber works, a conductor, educator, and advisor to arts organizations. She was born Tania Justina León in Havana, Cuba, and has mixed French, Spanish, Chinese, African, and Cuban heritage. Her grandmother recognized that her granddaughter liked […]