People, Locations, Episodes

Hilda Simms, Actress, and Media Talent Advocate

This date in 1918 marks the birth of Hilda Simms. She was an African American stage and film actress.

Born Hilda Moses in Minneapolis, MN she graduated from South high school. Sims joined the American Negro Theater at Harlem, NY, in 1943, and was given the title role in Anna Lucasta. When the production moved to Broadway in 1944, it became the first all-Black production to be performed on Broadway without a racial theme. It had a run of over 950 performances.

Vernon Jarrett, Journalist born

*Vernon Jarrett was born on this date in 1918.  He was a Black broadcast and print journalist.  Vernon Daurice Jarrett was born in Tennessee; both of his parents were schoolteachers. He attended Knoxville College in Tennessee on a football scholarship and graduated with a bachelor’s in history and sociology in 1941.  He moved to Chicago in […]

The Homesteader Film Debuts

*On this date in 1919, The Homesteader (film) was shown. This is a lost black-and-white silent film by Black author and filmmaker Oscar Micheaux.  The Homesteader involves six principal characters, the leading one being Jean Baptiste (Charles Lucas), a homesteader far off in the Dakotas, the lone Black living in the area. Jack Stewart, a Scotsman, arrives in this wilderness with his motherless daughter, […]

The Norman Film Studio Opens

*On this date in 1919, we celebrate the founding of the Norman Film Manufacturing Company.  Norman Studios was an American film studio in Jacksonville, Florida. Richard Edward Norman founded it, and from 1919 to 1928, it produced silent films featuring African American casts. The only surviving studio from early film-making in Jacksonville, its facilities are […]

Lloyd Richards, Media, and Stage Producer born

Lloyd Richards was born this date in 1919. He was an African American film, theater, and video director.

He was born in Toronto, Canada, but at an early age his family moved to Detroit. Lloyd Richards was only nine years old when his father died, leaving his mother to raise five children during the Depression. To make matters worse, soon after his mother became blind. At 13, young Lloyd went to work to help support the struggling family.

Kathleen Livingstone, Broadcaster born

*Kathleen “Kay” Livingstone was born on this date in 1919.  She was a Black Canadian social activist, actress, and broadcaster.   Kathleen Jenkins was born in London, Ontario, and was the daughter of James and Christina Jenkins. Her father was an assistant judge in the local juvenile court, and her parents founded a newspaper, Dawn […]

Hazel Scott, Singer, Actress, and Musician born

Hazel Scott was born on this date in 1920. She was an African American singer, actress, and musician.

Beah Richards, Actress born

The birth of Beah Richards in 1920 is celebrated on this date. She was an African American actress and poet.

Allen Hoskins, Child Actor born.

*Allen Hoskins was born on this date in 1920. He was a Black child actor and rehabilitation counselor.   Allen Clayton Hoskins was born in Boston, but his parents, Clayton H. Hoskins and Florence A. Fortier Hoskins, moved the family to Los Angeles, and in 1922, his acting career began. His younger sister Jannie also appeared […]

LaWanda Page, Actress, and Comedian born

LaWanda Page was born on this date in 1920. She was an African American comedic character actress.

Born in Cleveland and raised in St. Louis, Page began her career as a dancer and chorus girl billed as “the Bronze Goddess of Fire,” and later became a stand-up comic. Her greatest fame began in her 1950s when comedian Redd Foxx, a childhood friend, asked her to join his Norman Lear sitcom adapted from the British series “Steptoe and Son.” Page signed on as Fred Sanford’s crusty sister-in-law, Esther Anderson, in 1973, and stayed with “Sanford and Son” until the series ended in 1977.

Esther Rolle, Actress of Stage, Screen, and Television born

On this date in 1920, Esther Rolle was born. She was an African American Emmy Award-winning actress.

She was born in Pompano Beach, FL, the tenth of 18 children birb ti parents were of Bahamian descent. Rolle attended Booker T. Washington High School in Miami, and then attended Spelman College for a year before moving to New York. She supported herself by working in a pocketbook factory while auditioning for the theater.

George Olden, Graphic Designer born

*George Olden was born on this date in 1920.  He was a Black graphic designer.   George Elliott Olden was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the grandson of a slave and the son of a Baptist preacher. In his youth, he attended Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C., then Virginia State College, before dropping out shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor to work as a graphic designer for the Office […]

Slappy White, Comedian born

*”Slappy” White was born on this date in 1921.  He was a Black comedian and actor.   Melvin Edward “Slappy” White was born in Baltimore, Maryland.  His official biography reported that he “ran away to join the circus” as a child. White was born near the old Royal Theatre in Baltimore; by age 10, he […]

Thelma Carpenter, Singer, and Actress born

*Thelma Carpenter was born on this date in 1922. She was a Black jazz singer and actress.   She was born in Brooklyn, NY, the only child of Fred and Mary Carpenter, and attended Girls’ Commercial High School. Carpenter had her radio show on WNYC in New York as a child performer and won an amateur night at the Apollo Theatre in […]

Norman Lear, Screenwriter, Producer, and Activist born.

*Norman Lear was born on this date in 1922. He was a white Jewish-American screenwriter, producer, and progressive activist. Norman Milton Lear was from New Haven, Connecticut; his parents were Jeanette (née Seicol) and Hyman “Herman” Lear, a traveling salesman. He had a younger sister, Claire Lear Brown. Both parents were of Russian-Jewish descent. When Lear […]