People, Locations, Episodes

Raymond St. Jacques, Actor born

*Raymond St. Jacques was born on this date in 1930.  He was a Black actor, director, and producer.   St. Jacques was born James Arthur Johnson in Hartford, Connecticut. He had a sister, Barbara Ann. Shortly after his birth, his parents divorced; he moved with his mother and sister to New Haven, Connecticut. Johnson’s mother, […]

Ethel Ayler, Actress born

*Ethel Ayler was born on this date in 1930. She was a Black character actress.   She was born Ethel Spraggins Ayler in Whistler, Alabama, and attended Fisk University, majoring in voice. While there, she learned to sing in French, Spanish, Italian, and German. Ayler moved to Chicago for a singing career and began acting when she won a role in a touring company of Porgy […]

Douglas Turner Ward, Playwright born

*Douglas Turner Ward was born on this date in 1930. He is a Black playwright, actor, director, and theatrical producer.   His birth name was Roosevelt Ward Jr., born in Burnside, Louisiana. His mother was Dorothy Ward (née Short), and his father was Roosevelt Ward, both plantation workers. His great, great-grandmother, Elnora, was owned by […]

Lorraine Hansberry, Playwright, and Activist born

Lorraine Hansberry was born on this date in 1930. She was an African American writer and activist for equal rights for Blacks.

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born in Chicago, the daughter of Nannie Perry Hansberry and Carl A. Hansberry, both active proponents of civil rights. Hansberry’s father worked with the NAACP and the Urban League to challenge segregation. and he ran for Congress through his His attempt to break down the barriers of racism continued in the political arena when he ran for Congress.

Faith Ringgold, Artist, and Professor born

On this date in 1930, Faith Ringgold was born in New York City. She is an African American artist who has spent her career breaking out of boundaries and clearing spaces for African American creativity, especially that of women.

Whitman Mayo, Actor, and Theater Teacher

Whitman Mayo, an African American actor was born this date in 1930.

Mayo was born in New York City, and moved to Los Angeles where he attended Los Angeles City College and the University of California at Los Angeles. Following college, he spent seven years as a counselor at an institution for delinquent boys. He left counseling and turned to acting while picking up odd jobs, such as picking grapes, working at a dairy, and as a railroad worker. He also spent a year in Mexico playing professional volleyball.

James Earl Jones, Actor born

*James Earl Jones was born on this date in 1931. He is an African American actor.

Ivan Dixon, Actor, and Director born

*Ivan Dixon was born on this date in 1931. He was a Black actor, director, activist, and producer.   Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III was born in Harlem, the son of a grocery store owner. When he was young, Dixon lived at 518 West 150th Street in Harlem, on the same block with Josh White, Ralph […]

Shirley Verrett, Opera Singer born

Shirley Verrett was born on this date in 1931. She is an African American opera singer and one of the leading sopranos in the world.

She was born New Orleans to Leon Solomon, a building contractor, and Elvira Harris Verrett; she had four brothers and a sister. She had and her parents were passionate members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, an affiliation that would play a role in the development of Verrett’s career. When Verrett was five, the family moved to Oxnard, CA, where her father established the Verrett Construction Company.

Philippa Schuyler, Composer, and Writer born

On this date, Philippa D. Schuyler was born in 1931. She was an African American concert pianist.

Adrienne Kennedy, Playwright born

Adrienne Kennedy, an African American playwright, was born on this date in 1931.

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.