People, Locations, Episodes

Odessa Brown, Cosmetologist born

*Odessa Brown was born on this date in 1920. She was an African American cosmetologist, and health activist.

She was born in Des Arc, Arkansas and received training as a licensed beautician at the C. J. Walker Beauty School in Chicago.  She moved to Seattle, WA in 1963. A mother of four, she supported her family by working as a Community Organizer for the Central Area Motivation Program beginning in 1965, and as a beautician.  Brown was a staunch supporter of a health care facility for children in the Central Area of Seattle. 

Edward H. Jones, Businessman born

Edward H. Jones was born on this date in 1920. He was an African American businessman and activist.

Born in Gastonia, NC, he grew up greatly admiring his family, particularly his grandfather James Hoffman, a stonemason, and his mother Nettie who raised her family alone after his father left in 1925. He also took pride in the accomplishments of his brother Jimmy who started a Boy Scout Troop for Black youths in North Carolina when the BSA was segregated.

Anatole Broyard , Writer and Literary Critic born

*Anatole Broyard was born on this date in 1920. He was a Black writer and literary critic.  Anatole Paul Broyard was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, into a Black Creole family established as free people of color before the American Civil War. The first Broyard recorded in Louisiana was a French colonist in the mid-eighteenth century.  He was the son of Paul […]

Percy E. Sutton, Lawyer born

Percy Sutton, an African American lawyer and entrepreneur, was born on this date in 1920.

Born in San Antonio, TX, Percy Ellis Sutton was the youngest of 15 children, all of whom became distinguished citizens in their respective professions including one who became a New York State Supreme Court judge and another a member of the Texas House of Representatives.

The Bungleton Green Comic Strip is Published

*The Black comic strip Bungleton Green is celebrated on this date in 1920.  Four different cartoonists drew Bungleton Green from 1929 to 1968. At its beginning for almost ten years, Leslie Rodgers was the first. Bungleton Green was published in the Chicago Defender.  Naturally, Bungleton Green took on a slightly different tone at the hands […]

Theater Owners Booking Association is Formed

*This 1921 date celebrates the Theatre Owners Booking Association or T.O.B.A.  They were the vaudeville circuit for Black performers in the 1920s. The association was established following the work of vaudeville performer Sherman H. Dudley. By 1909, Dudley was widely known as the “Lone Star Comedian” and had begun an attempt to have a black-owned […]

The Sunset Café (Chicago) Opens

*The Sunset Café is celebrated on this date in 1921. Also known as The Grand Terrace Café, the Sunset Café was a jazz club in Chicago, Illinois.  It was one of the most important jazz clubs in America. Chicago became a creative capital of jazz innovation and again during the emergence of bebop in the […]

Black Swan Records is Formed

*On this date we remember Black Swan Records, the first Black-owned record label in America.

Yuri Kochiyama born

*Yuri Kochiyama was born on this date in 1921. She was an Japanese-American activist and journalist. Born Mary Yuriko Nakahara in San Pedro, Calif, she an outgoing student in high school, she played sports and wrote for the school newspaper. She was mostly unaware of political issues until her father, Seiichi, was taken into custody […]

Joseph Felmet, Activist, and Journalist born

*Joseph Felmet was born on this date in 1921. He was a white-American journalist, pacifist, and activist. Joseph Andrew Felmet was born in Asheville, North Carolina. He attended Lee H. Edwards High School and delivered newspapers for The Asheville Times. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1942 with a bachelor’s […]

Phyllis A. Wallace, Economist born.

*Phyllis A. Wallace was born on this date in 1921. She was a Black economist and activist. She was born Annie Rebecca Wallace in Calvert County, Maryland, the first of six children born to John Wallace, a craftsman, and Stevella Wallace. She attended a well-ranked yet segregated high school, Frederick Douglass High School, graduating first […]

William Worthy Jr., Journalist born

*William Worthy, Jr. was born on this date in 1921. He was an African American journalist, civil rights activist, and dissident.

Alan Freed, Disc Jockey born

*Alan Freed was born on December 15, 1921. He was a white-American disc jockey. Albert James “Alan” Freed was born to a Welsh-American mother, Maude Palmer, and a Russian-Jewish immigrant father, Charles S. Freed, in Windber, Pennsylvania. In 1933, Freed’s family moved to Salem, Ohio, where Freed attended Salem High School, graduating in 1940. While […]

Nellie Monk, Music Business Manager born

Nellie Monk’s birth in 1921 is celebrated on this date. She was an African American band manager, wife, and representative for her husband, Thelonious Monk, one of the most influential pianist/composers in jazz.

The Lincoln Theater, (Washington D.C.) Opens

*On this date from 1922 we celebrate the opening of the Lincoln Theater.

Located in Washington, D.C. The Lincoln Theater was the center of a cultural renaissance that predated Harlem. Washington natives Duke Ellington and Pearl Bailey were joined by nationally acclaimed artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Nat King Cole, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, and Sarah Vaughn who performed regularly there. Even Franklin Delano Roosevelt had his birthday parties at the Lincoln Colonnade, a festive party hall once located at the Theater.