People, Locations, Episodes

Reri Grist, Classic Vocalist born

*Reri Grist was born on this date in 1932. She is an African American classical vocalist and educator.

Otis Young, Actor, and Teacher born

Otis Young was born on this date in 1932. He was an African American actor, minister, and educator.

R.I., Young was one of 14 children. He joined the Marine Corps at 17 and after serving in the Korean War, enrolled in acting classes at New York University on the GI Bill. He studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Drama in New York City in 1960 and appeared in numerous theater productions there and in Los Angeles. Young was the first Black actor to co-star in a television Western series, “The Outcasts” in the late 1960s.

Mabel King, Actress born

*Mabel King was born on December 25, 1932. She was a Black film, stage, and television actress and singer.   She was born Mabel Elizabeth Washington in Charleston, South Carolina, the daughter of Rosalie Washington and Joseph Washington. She was raised in Harlem, New York, where she became a gospel and nightclub singer. She did not start […]

Godfrey Cambridge, Stage, and Screen Actor born

*On this date in 1933, Godfrey Cambridge was born. He was an African American actor and comedian, one of the most unique comics of the early 1970’s.

Born to parents who emigrated from British Guiana, he attended public schools in Nova Scotia while living with his grandparents. After finishing his education in New York at Flushing High School and Hofstra College, he began to study acting.

Camille Billops, Artist born

*Camille Billops was born on this date in 1933. She is an African American artist.

From Los Angeles, in 1960, Billops graduated from Los Angeles State College (California State University, Los Angeles), where she majored in education for physically handicapped children. She collaborated with photographer James Van Der Zee and poet, scholar, and playwright Owen Dodson on the Harlem Book of the Dead, which was published in 1978 with an introduction by Toni Morrison. Her primary medium is sculpture and recently, has turned her eye to filmmaking.

Arthur Duncan, Tap Dancer born

*Arthur Duncan was born on this date in 1933.  He is a Black Tap Dancer.   Born in Pasadena, California, Duncan entered show business at age 13, when he was a dance quartet member performing at McKinley Junior High School. He later entered Pasadena City College to study pharmacy but left to pursue a career in show business. Duncan started touring with The Jimmie Rodgers […]

Gloria Foster, Actress born

*Gloria Foster was born on this date in 1933.  She was a Black actress. Gloria Foster was born in Chicago, Illinois. As a young child, she was put into the custody of her maternal grandparents.  Eleanor Sudds and her grandfather, Clyde Sudds, raised Gloria on a farm. Foster never knew who her father was, and she moved to Janesville, Wisconsin, […]

Adolph Caesar, Actor born

On this date in 1933, Adolph Caesar, an African American actor, was born.

Born in Harlem, New York, Caesar graduated from George Washington High School in New York City. He enlisted in the Navy where he achieved the rank of chief petty officer.

Al Freeman Jr., Actor, and Teacher born

*Al Freeman Jr. was born on this date in 1934. He was a Black actor, writer and college (drama) professor.

Dick Anthony Williams, Actor born

*Dick Anthony Williams was born on this date in 1934. He was an African American actor.

Williams was born on the South Side of Chicago and spent four years of his childhood in a hospital being treated for polio. In an interview with The Chicago Tribune, he said being hospitalized had its advantages. It kept him safe, he said, and he “ate well.” But, he added, “It’s very gratifying now to see an iron lung and not have to get into it.”

Diana Sands, Stage Actress born

“Look at me. Never mind my color. Please just look at me!” This quote belongs to Diana Sands, an African American actress, born on this date in 1934.

Lorraine O’Grady, Artist born

*Lorraine O’Grady was born on this date in 1934. She is a Black artist, writer, translator, and critic.          Life and work             O’Grady was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Jamaican parents Edwin and Lena O’Grady, who helped establish St. Cyprian’s, the first West Indian Episcopal church in Boston. Attracted to the form and aesthetics of the […]

Johari Amini, Stage Director, and Teacher born

Johari Amini (her name may also appear as JohariCourts-Amini, JCourts-Amini, JohariC) was born on this date in 1948. She is an African American teacher of theater, director of several outstanding plays, an educator, a writer, and an administrator.

Ed Bullins, Playwright, and Author born

Ed Bullins, an African American playwright and author, was born on this date in 1935.

The Rose McClendon Players are formed.

*The Rose McClendon Players are celebrated on this date in 1935. This was a theater group founded in Harlem, New York. The Rose McClendon Players lived up to the outstanding legacy left by their legendary namesake, Rose McClendon. While working with the Federal Theatre Project, she developed her vision of a Black theatre company. Together […]