People, Locations, Episodes

Selma Burke, Artist born

On this date, Selma Burke born in 1900. She was an African American sculptor from Mooresville, North Carolina.

As a child she liked to whittle and model in clay but her mother insisted she get an education for a “career.” She was educated at Slater Industrial and State Normal School, now Winston-Salem State University; St. Agnes School of Nursing, Raleigh; and Women’s Medical College, Philadelphia.

Richmond Barthe, Sculptor born

*On this date in 1901, Richmond Barthe was born. He was an African American sculptor.

From Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, his father died at 22, when he was only one month old. His mother was very devoted and influenced his aesthetic development significantly. When Barthe was twelve, his work was shown at the county fair in Mississippi and he continued to develop remarkably as an artist. At eighteen, having moved to New Orleans, he won first prize for a sketching he submitted in the Parish (county) competition.

William H. Johnson, Artist born

*On this date we remember the birth of William H. Johnson in 1901. He was a Black artist who worked primarily as a painter.

Beauford Delaney, Artist born

*On this date in 1901, Beauford Delaney was born. He was an African American artist.

From Knoxville, Tennessee., his brother Joseph was also a painter. His parents named him Beauford for the coastal town Beauford, South Carolina where they had come from. Early in life he showed skill in drawing and he studied at the Massachusetts Normal School, the South Boston School of Art and the Copley Society.. Delaney moved to New York during the Harlem Renaissance gaining a reputation as a pastel portraitist. Some of his works were exhibited at the Whitney Studio Gallery in 1930.

John Bubbles, Tap Dancer born

*On this date in 1902, John Bubbles was born. He was an African American dancer and entertainer; know as “the father of rhythm tap”.

John William Sublett (his name at birth), was from Louisville, Kentucky and grew up in Indianapolis, IN. At the age of eleven he teamed up with Ford Lee Washington in an act billed as Buck and Bubbles. Bubbles sang and danced while Buck played accompaniment. They won a number of amateur competitions performing around the Louisville, Detroit, and New York City areas, sometimes in blackface.

Wallace Thurman, Editor, and Playwright born

*This date marks the birth of Wallace Henry Thurman in 1902. He was an African American editor, critic, novelist, and playwright associated with the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Wilfredo Lam, Afro Cuban Artist born

*Wilfredo Lam was born on this date in 1902. He was an Afro Cuban artist.

Born (Wifredo Yscar de la Concepayn Lam y Castilla) Lam was from Sagua La Grande, a small town in Cuba. His father was Chinese and his mother was African, Spanish and Native-Cuban. Young Lam had artistic talent as a young man; he went to Havana to study law, and also learned painting at the Academy of San Alejandro. In 1923, he traveled to Madrid to further his artist studies. During that time (1929) he married Eva Piriz but both she and their young son died in 1931 of Tuberculosis.

Lucreaty Clark, Folk Artist born

*Lucreaty Clark was born on this date in 1903. She was a Black folk artist known for basket weaving. Lucreaty J. Clark was born in rural Jefferson County, Florida. She was one of the youngest sixteen children in a sharecropping family that worked on plantations, picking cotton and performing other farm-related tasks. She learned how to weave baskets […]

Gwendolen Avril Coleridge-Taylor, Pianist, and Composer born

*Gwendolen Avril Coleridge-Taylor was born on this date in 1903.  She was a Black English pianist, conductor, and composer.   She was born in South Norwood, London, and was the daughter of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Jessie Walmisley. They had met as students at the Royal College of Music. She had an older brother, Hiawatha. […]

Edwin Rosskam, Photographer born

*Edwin Rosskam was born on this date in 1903. He was a white Jewish-American freelance photographer and writer.   Edwin Rosskam was born in Munich, Germany, to American parents and came to Philadelphia, PA, in his late teens in 1919. Rosskam aspired to be an artist and took up painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. […]

Elisabeth Welch, Singer, and Dancer born

*Elisabeth Welch was born on this date in 1904. She was a African American chanteuse singer and dancer.

Undine Moore, Composer, and Teacher born

On this date in 1904, Undine Smith Moore was born. She was an African American composer, pianist, choir director, and educator.

Miguel Covarrubias, Artist born

*Miguel Covarrubias was born on this date in 1904.  He was a Mexican painter, caricaturist, illustrator, ethnologist, and art historian. He captured the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance in much of his work and his book, Negro Drawings.  José Miguel Covarrubias Duclaud was born in Mexico City. After graduating from the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria at […]

Olufela Sowande, Musician, and Composer born

*Olufela Sowande was born on this date in 1905.  He was a Nigerian musician and composer of African descent.   Olufela (Fela) Obafunmilayo Sowande was born in Abeokuta, near Lagos, Nigeria; he was the son of Emmanuel Sowande, a priest and pioneer of Nigerian church music. As a child, he sang in the Choir of the Cathedral Church […]

Elvera Sanchez Davis, Dancer born.

*Elvera “Baby” Sanchez Davis was born on September 1, 1905. She was an Afro Cuban American dancer. Elvera Sanchez was born in New York City to Afro Cuban immigrants Luisa Valentina and Marco Sánchez, a cigar maker. She began her career as a chorus-line dancer at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem in 1921. She became […]