People, Locations, Episodes

Melvin Van Peebles, Author, Director, and Producer born

*Melvin Van Peebles was born on this date in 1932. He is an African American artist, author, film actor, director and producer.

Mabel King, Actress born

*Mabel King was born on December 25, 1932.  She was a Black film, stage, and television actress and singer.   She was born Mabel Elizabeth Washington in Charleston, South Carolina, the daughter of Rosalie Washington and Joseph Washington.  She was raised in Harlem, New York, where she became a gospel and nightclub singer.  She did not start acting until her mid-thirties, in […]

Nichelle Nichols, TV, Actress born

*Nichelle Nichols was born on this date in 1932. She was a Black actress, singer, and dancer. Grace Dell Nichols was the third of six children born in Robbins, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Her father was Samuel Earl Nichols, a factory worker elected both town mayor of Robbins in 1929 and its chief magistrate, […]

Godfrey Cambridge, Stage, and Screen Actor born

*On this date in 1933, Godfrey Cambridge was born. He was an African American actor and comedian, one of the most unique comics of the early 1970’s.

Born to parents who emigrated from British Guiana, he attended public schools in Nova Scotia while living with his grandparents. After finishing his education in New York at Flushing High School and Hofstra College, he began to study acting.

Quincy Jones, Composer, Musician, and Producer born

*On this date in 1933, Quincy Jones was born. He is a Black musician, composer, producer, and arranger.

Adolph Caesar, Actor born

On this date in 1933, Adolph Caesar, an African American actor, was born.

Born in Harlem, New York, Caesar graduated from George Washington High School in New York City. He enlisted in the Navy where he achieved the rank of chief petty officer.

Flip Wilson, Comedian born

On this date in 1933, Flip Wilson was born. He was an African American entertainer and the most visible Black comedian of the early 1970s.

Cicely Tyson, Actress born

Cicely Tyson was born on this date in 1933. She is an African American model and actress.

Gil Noble, Television Host born

*Gil Noble was born on this date in 1932. He was an African American television broadcaster and journalist.

Al Freeman Jr., Actor, and Teacher born

*Al Freeman Jr. was born on this date in 1934. He was a Black actor, writer and college (drama) professor.

Ted Ross, Actor born

Ted Ross, an African American entertainer, was born on this date in 1934.

Theodore “Ted” Ross was from Zanesville, Ohio, but his mother, Elizabeth Russell, a nightclub singer in the 1920s and 1930s, moved the family to Dayton when young Ross was seven. He loved the clubs on West Fifth Street–Dayton’s answer to Harlem in the first half of the 20th century. While in junior high, Ross, who was big for his age, would dress up and strut into the Owl Club and The Palace Theater’s Midnight Rambles to see great acts such as Duke Ellington.

Dick Anthony Williams, Actor born

*Dick Anthony Williams was born on this date in 1934. He was an African American actor.

Williams was born on the South Side of Chicago and spent four years of his childhood in a hospital being treated for polio. In an interview with The Chicago Tribune, he said being hospitalized had its advantages. It kept him safe, he said, and he “ate well.” But, he added, “It’s very gratifying now to see an iron lung and not have to get into it.”

Lloyd Haynes, 1960s TV Actor born

Lloyd Haynes was born on this date in 1934. He was an African American actor.

Born Samuel Lloyd Haynes in South Bend, IN, he served in the Marines in Korea and was a commander in the Navy.

As an actor, Haynes starred as a history teacher “Pete Dixon” on TV’s Room 222, one of the most popular TV shows of the 1960s. The series chronicled the lives of the students and teachers at the fictional Walt Whitman High School.

Sylvia Robinson, Music Producer born

*Sylvia Robinson was born on this date in 1935. She was a Black singer and music producer. Born Sylvia Vanderpool in New York City, she made her first record when she was 14, backed by the veteran jazz trumpeter ‘Hot Lips’ Page. By the time she enrolled at Washington Irving High School, she was already […]

Diahann Carroll, Actress born

On this date in 1935, Diahann Carroll was born. She is an African American actress and singer.