People, Locations, Episodes

Leo Twiggs, Artist, and Educator born

*Leo Twiggs’s birth, on this date in 1934, is celebrated. He is a Black artist and educator. Leo F. Twiggs was born in St. Stephens, South Carolina. As a child, he wanted to get a job where he could wear a collar and tie. This was a modest goal and an extremely unlikely one for […]

A Black Woman Performs at the White House

*On this date in 1934, Etta Moten sang for President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt at a White House Dinner.

It was the first time in the 20th century an African American actress performed at the White House.

Arthur Mitchell, Choreographer born

*Arthur Mitchell was born on this date in1934. He is an African American dancer, choreographer, and director of the Dance Theater of Harlem.

George Shirley, Classic Vocalist, and Teacher born

George Shirley was born on this date in 1934. He is an African American concert vocalist, teacher, and lecturer.

Arthur L. Hall, Choreographer and Teacher born.

*Arthur L. Hall was born on this date in 1934. He was a Black dancer, choreographer, and teacher.  He was the son of Ms. Sally Yancey and Joshua Milton, and he was from Memphis, Tennessee. His mother and grandmother, Ms. Emma Yancey, raised him on Beale Street and later in Washington, DC, where Ms. Sally remarried to […]

Ted Ross, Actor born

Ted Ross, an African American entertainer, was born on this date in 1934.

Theodore “Ted” Ross was from Zanesville, Ohio, but his mother, Elizabeth Russell, a nightclub singer in the 1920s and 1930s, moved the family to Dayton when young Ross was seven. He loved the clubs on West Fifth Street–Dayton’s answer to Harlem in the first half of the 20th century. While in junior high, Ross, who was big for his age, would dress up and strut into the Owl Club and The Palace Theater’s Midnight Rambles to see great acts such as Duke Ellington.

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.

The ‘Jitterbug’ (Dance) Goes Public

*On this date in 1935, the Jitterbug (dance) was introduced to the world. Cab Calloway introduced it in his film Jitterbug Party.   In the film, he performed two songs at the Cotton Club, then took some friends to Harlem for a “Jitterbug Party.”  The Jitterbug is a dance popularized in the United States in the early 20th century, associated with […]

Simmie Knox, Portrait Artist born

*Simmie Knox was born on this date in 1935. He is an African American artist.

From Aliceville, Alabama, his father was a carpenter and mechanic. After Knox’s parents divorced he lived with his father’s sister on a farm in Leroy, Alabama. This arrangement occurred while his father lived and worked in another city until young Knox was nine. As a boy his first love was baseball, which he played with friends one of which was Hank Aaron. Yet during a game, a ball hit Knox in the eye forcing him to put the game down for more than a year.

The Federal Arts Project Begins

*On this date in 1935, the Federal Art Project (FAP) began.  This was the visual arts arm of the American Works Progress Administration (WPA), a Federal One program during the Great Depression era. Funded under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, it operated from 1935 until 1943. It was created as a relief measure to employ […]

Louis Draper, Art Phhotopgrapher born.

*Louis Draper was born on this date in 1935. He was a Black art photographer. Louis Hansel Draper was born in Richmond, Virginia. He and his sister Nell attended a private Catholic school near Richmond, the Van deVere Institute, and Virginia Randolph High School in Glen Allen, VA. In 1953, he enrolled in Virginia State […]

Martina Arroyo, Classical Vocalist born

*Martina Arroyo was born on this date in 1936. She is an Afro Puerto Rican operatic soprano and educator.  She was born in New York City, the younger of two children of Demetrio Arroyo, originally from Puerto Rico, and Lucille Washington, a native of Charleston, South Carolina. Her older brother is a Baptist minister. The family lived in Harlem near St. Nicholas Avenue and 111th Street. Her […]

Sylvia Williams, Curator born

*Sylvia H. Williams was born on this date in 1936. She was a Black museum director, curator, art historian, and scholar of African art.    Sylvia Louise Hill was born and grew up in Lincoln, Pennsylvania. Her father was a professor of English and dean at Lincoln University. She married Charlton Williams, but the couple never had children. Williams held art history […]

Helen Walker-Hill, Musicologist and Pianist born.

*Helen Walker-Hill was born on this date in 1936. She was a white Canadian pianist and musicologist who specialized in honoring the music of Black women composers. Helen Siemens was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She received her early musical training from her mother, Margaret Siemens, and continued piano studies with Emma Endres Kountz in […]

Cecil Brath, Visual Artist and Activist born

*Cecil Brath was born on this date in 1936. He was a Black Pan-African activist. Cecil Elombe Brath was born in Brooklyn, New York, where his father had migrated from Barbados in the 1920s. Brath and his brother, Kwame Brathwaite, grew up in Harlem and Hunts Point, attending the High School of Industrial Art (now […]