People, Locations, Episodes

Renee Powell, Golfer, Businesswoman born

*Renee Powell was born on this date in 1946. She is a Black professional golfer and Businesswoman. Renee Powell was born in East Canton, Ohio. She began playing golf at the age of three. Her father, Bill Powell, was the first Black person to create and build his golf course in America. He made miniature […]

Chester Higgins Jr., Photographer born

*The birth of Chester Higgins Jr. is celebrated on this date in 1946. He is a Black photographer. Higgins was born in Fairhope, Alabama, and grew up in New Brockton, Alabama. He attended Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), where he met the school’s official photographer, Prentice H. Polk. He graduated in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in business […]

Broadway Federal Bank (California), Opens

Broadway Federal Bank, African American owned financial institution in Los Angeles was founded on this date in 1946 when it received its Federal Charter.

Cathy Hughes, Media Entrepreneur born

*Cathy Hughes was born on this date in 1947. She is a Black entrepreneur, radio and television personality, and business executive.   Catherine Elizabeth Woods was born to Helen Jones Woods and William Alfred Woods. Her mother, Helen Woods, was a trombonist with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, and her father was the first Black to earn an accounting degree […]

WDIA Radio, a story

*WDIA radio went on the air on this date in 1947. WDIA (1070 AM) is a Black radio station in Memphis, Tennessee. Active since World War II, it soon became the first radio station in the United States programmed entirely for African Americans. It featured Black radio personalities; its success in building an audience quickly […]

Sepia Magazine Is Published

On this date in 1947, we celebrate the debut of Sepia magazine. This was a Black-owned photo and journalistic magazine similar to Life magazine.

Published in Fort Worth, TX, it featured articles based on the achievements of African Americans. The magazine, which made its debut under the name Negro Achievements, often wrote of the obstacles facing Blacks, from lynching and Ku Klux Klan marauding in its earlier publications to the later rise in violence among Blacks.

Harold Dow, Broadcast Journalist born

*Harold Dow was born on this date in 1947. He was an African American television news journalist.

Jennifer Hosten, Fashion Model born

*Jennifer Hosten was born on this date in 1947. She is a retired Black fashion model and author.  She was born in St. George’s, Grenada. She studied in London and then worked for the BBC’s Caribbean radio service before becoming a flight attendant. She was 23 when she won the Miss World contest in November […]

Willi Smith, Fashion Designer born

*Willi Smith was born on this date in 1948. He was one of the most successful African American fashion designers in history.

Richard D. Parsons, Businessman born

*Richard Parsons was born on this date in 1948. He is a Black business executive and lawyer.  Richard Dean “Dick” Parsons was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was one of five children. His maternal grandfather had been head groundskeeper at the John D. Rockefeller estate, Kykuit. Growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, Parsons’s […]

Clearview Golf Club (Ohio) Opens

*On this date in 1948, we celebrate Clearview Golf Club. The Clearview Golf Club was the first golf course in the United States to be built, owned, and operated by a black person. The club started in 1946, with Bill Powell purchasing and working on the land in his spare time. The club is two […]

Black History And American Urban Renewal, a story

*Black history and modern American urban renewal are affirmed in 1948. This relocation of people began with the Taft-Ellender-Wagner housing bill, which had passed the Senate at the time. The Urban Renewal Act of 1949 followed and set up urban renewal projects in cities across North America and the United States. Urban renewal, especially at […]

Jesse Russell, Cell Phone Inventor born

*Jesse Russell was born on this date in 1948. He is a Black inventor and IT entrepreneur.   Jesse Eugene Russell was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in the United States of America, into a large African American family with eight brothers and two sisters. He is the son of Charles Albert Russell and Mary Louise Russell. His early childhood […]

George Foreman, Boxer and Businessman born.

*George Foreman was born on this date in 1949. He was a Black professional boxer, businessman, minister and author. George Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas. He grew up with six siblings in the Fifth Ward community of Houston, Texas. Although he was raised by J. D. Foreman, whom his mother had married when George was […]

Sheila Johnson, Entrepreneur born

*Sheila Johnson was born on this date in 1949. She is a Black businesswoman and philanthropist. Johnson was born Sheila Crump in Chicago, Illinois, a suburb of Maywood. Her father was a neurosurgeon. Johnson attended Irving School in Maywood and graduated from Proviso High School in 1966. Though she was a cheerleading squad member at […]