People, Locations, Episodes

Ben Vereen, Dancer, and Singer born

*Ben Vereen was born on this date in 1946. He is a Black actor, dancer, and singer. Vereen was born Benjamin Augustus Middleton in Laurinburg, North Carolina. While still an infant, Vereen and his family relocated to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City. He was adopted by James Vereen, a paint factory worker, […]

Samuel Wright, Actor, and Singer born

*Samuel Wright was born on this date in 1946. He was a Black actor and singer. Samuel Edward Wright was from Camden, South Carolina. He attended Camden High School, where he was involved in sports and the arts. His first Broadway role was in the original 1971 cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Jesus Christ Superstar.” […]

Phylicia Rashad, Actress born

Phylicia Rashad, an African American actress. was born on this date in 1948.

Jewelle Gomez, Poet and Playwright born.

*Jewelle Gomez was born on this date in 1948. She is a Black lesbian author, poet, critic, and playwright. Jewelle Lydia Gomez was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dolores Minor LeClaire, a nurse, and John Gomez, a bartender. Gomez was raised by her maternal great-grandmother, Grace, who was born on Native land in Iowa to an African […]

Nell Carter, Singer, and Actress born

*Nell Carter was born on this date in 1948. She was an African American singer and actress.

From Birmingham, Alabama while growing up, Carter listened to her mother’s recordings of Dinah Washington and B. B. King, and her brother’s Elvis Presley records. She liked Doris Day, the Andrews Sisters, Johnny Mathis, and admired the work of Cleo Laine and Barbra Streisand. Early in her career, she performed as a singer on the gospel circuit. She moved on to coffeehouses and nightclubs in her hometown, before going on to New York.

Ntozake Shange, Author, and Educator born

Ntozake Shange was born on this date in 1948. She is an African American playwright, author, and educator.

Lynn Thigpen, Actress born.

Lynne Thigpen was born on this date in 1948. She was an African American actress.

Born in Joliet, IL, she was first seen on the New York stage in the 1975 “The Night That Made America Famous.” Unfortunately, it didn’t make her famous (not overnight, anyway), but she stuck with her craft, and not long thereafter, won a Theatre World Award for her performance in “Tintypes.” Thigpen was also in films, including “Warriors” (1979), “Godspell” (1981), “Tootsie” (1981), “Lean on Me” (1985) and “Impulse” (1988). Other films were “Bob Roberts,” “Random Hearts,” “Shaft,” and “The Insider.”

Leona Mitchell, Soprano Vocalist born

Leona Mitchell was born on this date in 1949. She is known worldwide as one of the greatest African American sopranos to ever perform in opera houses and an Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame inductee.

The Original Copestedics Are Formed

*The Original Copasetics were formed on this date in 1949. They were an ensemble of star tap dancers formed in New York City. The Copasetics was formed due to Bill Bojangles Robinson’s death to help revive the art of tap dance. The first group included composer/arranger Billy Strayhorn, choreographers Cholly Atkins, Honi Coles, Charles “Cookie” Cook, and […]

The Ebony Showcase Theater and Cultural Arts Center Opens

 *On this date in 1950, we celebrate the Ebony Showcase Theatre and Cultural Arts Center (ESTCAC), Inc., which was initially opened in 1923 as the Rimpau Theatre on Washington & Rimpau streets in Los Angeles. The location was on the south side of the street, five blocks east of La Brea Avenue. Its seating capacity […]

Syl Jones, Media Consultant, and Playwright born

Syl Jones was born on this date in 1951. He is an African American author, playwright, and media consultant.

He was born Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Sylvester and Juanita Jones. His family migrated north from Arkansas through Chicago in the early 1930s. After high school, Jones attended and graduated from Augsburg College in Minneapolis in 1973 with a double major in English and Theatre Arts.

Delroy Lindo, Actor born

*Delroy Lindo was born on this date in 1952. He is a Black British-American actor. Delroy George Lindo was born in Lewisham, southeast London, the son of Jamaican parents who had immigrated to the United Kingdom. Lindo grew up in nearby Eltham and became interested in acting like a child when he appeared in a […]

Lynn Whitfield, Actress born

*Lynn Whitfield was born on this date in 1953. She is a Black actress. From Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Whitfield made her film debut in Dr. Detroit in 1983. Three years later, she played the title character in the fact-based TV movie Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI, the story of the first Black female FBI agent. After […]

Marion McClinton, Playwright born

*Marion McClinton was born on this date in 1954. He was a Black theatre director, playwright, and actor.   Marion Isaac McClinton was born and raised in St. Paul. He attended Catholic school before briefly attending the College of St Thomas in 1973 and then the University of Minnesota. Swept up in the partying scene, McClinton […]

Denzel Washington, Actor, Director, and Minister born

Denzel Washington was born on this date in 1954. He is an African American film, television, and stage actor and occasional director.

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr., was born in Mount Vernon, New York. He has an older sister, Lorice, and a younger brother. His father, Virginia-born Reverend Denzel Washington, was an ordained Pentecostal minister, who worked for the Water Department and at a local department store. His mother, Lennis, a beauty parlor owner, was born in Georgia and raised in Harlem.