People, Locations, Episodes

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 credits theater […]

Gilda Snowden, Artist born

*Gilda Snowden was born on this date in 1954. She was a Black artist, educator, and mentor. Snowden was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in northwest Detroit. Her father was a dentist. Her parents and grandparents migrated from Alabama and Texas to Detroit early in the 20th century, part of the great migration of blacks […]

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.

“A Raisin in the Sun” Debuts on Broadway

*On this date in 1959 “A Raisin in the Sun,” became the first Broadway play written by a Black woman.

The show opened at the Barrymore Theater with Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil in the starring roles. Lorraine Hansberry’s drama ran for 530 performances and received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award.

Laurence Fishburne, Stage, TV, and Screen Actor born

Laurence Fishburne was born on this date 1961. He is an African American actor, playwright, screenwriter, director, and producer.

Born in Augusta, GA, he and his mother (a divorced teacher) moved the family to Brooklyn, NY, which he considers his hometown. Fishburne landed a regular role on “One Life to Live” when he was 10. His movie debut was in “Cornbread, Earl and Me” (1975). When he was 14, he began work on “Apocalypse Now” after lying about his age. For the next several years, he was offered only small roles. He eventually landed a part on “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”

LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club Opens

*La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, also known as La MaMa ETC, opened on this date in 1961. It is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded by Ellen Stewart, a theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan’s East Village, the theatre began in the basement boutique where Stewart sold her fashion designs. Stewart turned the space […]